Normal Life
by me.be.NELZ
Summary: Everyone's living the normal life. Cammie transfers and now what's the story?
1. new school

**In this story Macey is Cammie's little sister and Grant is her older brother. I have nothing against Tina but I needed someone to be mean... They just moved into town and it's the first day of school! Enjoy. C:**

**___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________**

"Come on, Cammie! Get up!"

The whinny voice of a little sister in the morning. Great.

"We're going to be late if you don't get up, Cammie," Macey complained. Reluctantly I started to get up. "Thank God! You're finally awake. Ten minutes until we leave so you better get a move on it!" she scolded me until I actually got out of the bed and took off my pajamas, then she took the courtesy to leave.

What day was it? Why was she in such a hurry? Ten minutes until we leave to _what_? Then it hit me. _School_. Macey was always excited for school. Now me? No, I was not excited for school. We had just moved here and we hadn't met anyone yet. That meant I got to sit around and look like an idiot looking for friends, or people to talk too. What should I wear? I knew Macey wouldn't accept just anything; she was always making sure I was wearing 'acceptable' clothes. I sighed. I threw on some light wash jeans and a white shirt with something outlined in blue. I think it was a flower with a dove, but it was all scribble-ly and it was just weird looking. I thought that at least.

I slid down the railing down into the entrance and Grant was waiting for me with some toast in a bag.

"Thanks, bro," I said, sticking the bread into my mouth.

"You're welcome. Excited for school?" He asked. He knew the answer to that one. I put on my shoes and walked out.

"Come on kids," mom yelled at us through the window of the car. I smiled. The school was too far to walk to so mom would have to drive us. That was a plus. Macey was such a jerk if she didn't get shot gun so I walked straight to the backseat. No use in putting Macey in a bad mood. Mom smiled at me in thanks.

"So are you excited for school guys?" mom asked us. Macey went off. For the rest of the drive it was Macey time, her talking about random stuff or anything just so she could talk. Finally we pulled in. Macey strutted and was waiting for Grant and me.

She wanted to make some kind of impression? Grant rolled his eyes. We walked out and I waved my mom good-bye. Already we had people staring at us. Considering my brother's 'god' of a body and Macey being beautiful, I saw it all. We walked to the office and got our locker combinations and such. We couldn't arrive in time for the orientation to see the whole school. Macey's locker was on the other side of the school and she met some girls like her so she went off. I didn't really care. She could hold her own. I mean she could be a total bitch sometimes! Those girls shouldn't be anything.

Grant and I walked down the hall. Since he was a grade older he had to go farther into the school to get to his locker. He was glad he could escort me to my locker. He was a little overprotective. I was barely noticed and he just made me more noticeable so I didn't see why he did it.

I saw my locker and I saw two people making out in front of it. I smiled. The girl was Tina Walters and I knew her. She went to my school before, but then she transferred. She was a bitch and I knew it.

I had played a few tricks on her before but none _too_ serious.

I walked straight up to them and coughed.

"EXCUSE ME," I said loudly. Everyone was looking over here, or rather peeking (like they shouldn't be or something. It was strange) and I had finally given them something to look at. The two looked startled at me.

"Cameron Morgan?" Tina all but screeched.

"Hey, Tina!" I grinned. The boy looked confused. He had bright green eyes and brown hair.

"What are you doing here," she spat at me.

"Gee, you're nice to a transfer student," I said.

"What, you get expelled from Gallagher?" she laughed.

"No, but since we're talking about our old school how's your hair?" She glared at me. One of my, not to harmless tricks got her to dye her hair.

Blue.

I noticed some blue streaks in her black hair.

"You changed your hair color too? I thought that brown was so pretty!" I said. Tina was just getting redder and redder. The people around us started to laugh. I don't know what she had been telling them but I knew that tricking her into dying her hair blue was not one of them. I saw her boyfriend crack a smile. I lightly pushed her out of my way and got into my locker and picked out items for my first class. Then I slammed my locker.

"Have a nice day, Tina!" I said smiling. Then I walked away. I saw Grant laughing like crazy and girls around him start blushing. Grant caught up with me and started telling jokes. We were laughing quite some time. Then a voice caught me off guard.

"That was bloody brilliant," the girl exclaimed. Her British accent fully pronounced. Grant and I turned to look at her. She stood up taller. "My name is Rebecca Baxter. Call me Bex," she put her hand out for me to shake. Wow, get with the times girl. Awkwardly I shook her hand. "That was quite a show back there," she kept going. "Tina's such a bitch and almost everyone knows it. But she's so popular and rich! Plus she's the newspaper editor so she can put anything in to get you in trouble." Huh, that would be a key point to remember. "What's your homeroom class?"

"Oh, uh, Mr. Robinson?" I said in a question form.

"Me too! I'll show you to his room!" she giggled. I waved at Grant.

"Hey! Any issues with boys and just let me know," he said. I rolled my eyes. Overprotective much.

"Wow that was awesome how you told Tina off about her hair. She doesn't talk about it much. You even got Zach to smile! He hasn't smiled much since he and Tina started going out. He's been all serious," Bex babbled on. So her boy toy's name was Zach huh?

"Well how long have they been going out?" I asked. It couldn't be any more than 7 months knowing Tina.

"Six months about," Bex replied. Ha, one more month and he would be free! Wait! What was I saying?! "He is the hottest boy in school." I looked over at her and she was smiling.

"Oh, here we are," Bex said, right as the bell rung. No wonder there were like, no people in the halls.

"Hello ladies, take a seat," I'm assuming who was 'Mr. Robinson' said. "Ah, wait. You must be new. Please introduce yourself." Wow. He sounded patient enough.

"Uh, Cammie Morgan," I said. Hey! I was in the same class as Tina and her boy toy. He was smirking while Tina's face had a disgusted look on.

"Fair enough, take a seat anywhere," Mr. Robinson said. I walked to sit next to Bex. Near the front, great.

Mr. Robinson droned on for the next 45 minutes and then _finally_ the bell rang.

I got up and walked out. I heard Tina almost right behind me. I bet she was shooting daggers. I saw a lot of the girls blush as they were walking out. That meant…

"Hey, SIS!" Yep. Grant was waiting for me.

"Hi, Grant!" Tina smiled at him walking out of the classroom. It was her flirty look. Augh. Please don't hit on my brother. Grant didn't even notice Tina.

"So how was class?" he asked me as he, Bex and I walked to my locker.

"Oh it was horrible! Our teacher was just talking and talking and it was super boring!" I was so tired I thought I was going to fall asleep just walking.

"Oh, don't worry," Bex started, "he's actually a real good teacher. But all the teachers are forced to say stuff like that because it's the first day of school." I stared in horror at Bex.

"YOU MEAN ALL THE TEACHERS ARE GOING TO GO THROUGH THAT?!" I demanded. I'm not sure I'll be able to make it through the day.

"Yeah, get ready for a tough day."

Great.

~*~*~*~

It was lunch finally. I got a mini tour of the school. Well more like a cyber tour. We went on the main page for computer and looked at the school. I figured out where my classes would be and the layout of the school.

Anyone want to explain to me why they had a separate building for lunch? Seemed like a waste to me. So instead of doing lunches by grade, they just made a huge building for all grades. Whatever I guess.

Bex and I got in line for lunch. Or rather for me. She brought her lunch.

"CAMMIE!!" The whole room looked over at Grant, waving his hands and waving me over. That was embarrassing.

"Oh mi gosh, he looks like a _gawd_," I girl in front of me said. I rolled my eyes. This school was going to get old _fast_.

I started to stroll over there gracefully. What can you say when my mom is beautiful and walked gracefully? I always copied my mom and now it just kind of sticked. I heard some wolf whistles. Sexist pigs much. I saw my brother stand up. That was my cue to hurry on over before he started something. I got over there before anything happened. Bex had sat by some of her other friends and I saw why. My family sat together alone. We were sitting at a smaller table for 4 people, unlike the other long tables. How they got that, I'm not sure.

"Hey, Mace. How's it gone?" I asked my little sister.

"Oh, these teachers are going on about the most _boring _things! It's terrible. And the girls here do NOT know fashion. I'm like worshiped. I need competition!" Macey started rambling on about how this school was 'just NO'.

"GRANT?" I asked, cutting Macey off.

"Man, the girls here are totally annoying. They follow me around and it's just not even cool. This one girl took her number out of her bra! It was gross!" Great. I had a choice of my brother rambling on about girls, or my sister rambling on about girls. Great.

"Well how is your day going?" Macey asked, cutting off Grant. Getting the message he stopped.

"I don't know, it's like a drag. I mean the teachers are super boring." My family knew that I was the one who actually cared about studying. "I met Bex and she seems nice enough," I kept going, I mean I must be somewhat interesting. "Tina-" my family went off. I felt kind of bad at some of the things that Grant and Macey were saying but they were true. She was a slut… I mean, not every girl gets a guy, dates him for seven months exact, then dumps him and gets a new guy in a week.

"Hello," a voice came. We all looked up. It was some boy.

"Uhhhhhh, do we know you?" Macey asked harshly.

The boy slightly cringed, but kept going. "I'm Jonas. I do things with computers. I heard a girl named Cammie liked to too."

So he was here for me.

"Put a finger on her and I'll kill you," Grant threatened. I felt bad for Jonas. He got the guts to come ask me and my family harshly starts to put him down.

"Sure, let's talk _somewhere __**else**_," I told him, telling my family to be somewhat kind. They just rolled their eyes and started talking to each other. As I got up I felt almost every eye on me. It was uncomfortable.

"So what kind of computer things do you do?" I asked him.

"You won't tell?" Jonas asked. Wow. He has faith in me.

"Nope," I reassured him.

"I like to do hacking," he responded. Well that was a new one. "Please don't tell!" he said. I smiled. I could like this boy.

"No, no. I think that's awesome," I said with a grin. Let's see what kind of sabotage to Tina I could do. "So are you a club or something?" I asked him.

"No," I was thinking about it but almost everyone knows me here and no one really, uh, likes me." Huh, I wonder why… I'll have to figure our later.

"Let's be a duo, then," I said. I liked the idea of being able to hack. It could be very… important. He smiled.

"After school in the computer lab?" he asked me.

"Uh, I can't do tonight," I replied. Knowing my family we were going to do something. "How about tomorrow?" He nodded.

Awesome. I was going to be a hacker.

~*~*~*~

I was walking to my next class after lunch. Bex wasn't in it so I didn't know anybody (smart of me not to make more friends) and Grant and Mace's classes were on the other side of the building. So here I was, making my way through. Suddenly I heard my name being called. I stopped and turned around to see who was calling. In the process I heard people around me gasp and say my name and they didn't know I was around.

I had this thing of being invisible. No one saw me when I didn't want to be seen. Except for whoever just called my name.

So who just called my name.

Zach

I looked at him in awe. How did he see me?

"Hey, you're going to catch flies with your mouth that open," he joked. I quickly shut it. "What class are you off too?" he asked me. I looked at my list.

"History," I replied.

"No way! Me to," he grinned. Bex said he didn't smile much. She must've been lying.

"Sweet," I said with no emotion.

"So you know Tina?" he asked me. I looked at him. I don't like her nor do I want to talk about her. Wait, he's her boy toy.

She probably sent him to get me to do something stupid.

"You better be careful," I warned him.

"Huh? Why?" he asked me. I wanted to tell him to get rid of Tina, but I couldn't.

"My brother's going to be out for you," I told him. That was a good thing to tell him, considering my brother was a freak sometimes.

"Ha! Seeing what Jonas did today, I'm nothing," he said while smirking.

You know that smirk was getting kind of annoying.

Luckily I walked into class before I could say anything.

"Hello Ms. Morgan," a voice said. I looked up. No teacher had known my name yet this one did. "Mr. Goode," he continued. "Welcome to history class. You have 41 seconds to get situated." Wow, this guy was rough. I sat down in the front row, seeing that it was the only seats open. I wonder if this guy is a spitter. Hmmm. Zach sat on my left, _still_ smirking.

The bell went off and he shut the door and locked it. I heard the door rattle. Obviously someone was trying to get in.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said through the knocking. "My name is Mr. Solomon. I do not let people into my room after the bell. So arrive ON TIME." The knocking stopped. I'm sure the poor kid outside the door heard. "I teach history obviously, and I have a lot of pop quizzes. So be on guard. Ms. Holton tell me what I said so far." I looked back and saw a girl blushing.

"I, uh, um," she stammered out.

"Fail," Mr. Solomon said. Ouch, sever much?

"Mr. Allen why don't you try." A jock perked up.

"Your name is Mr. Solomon and you don't like tardy people. You teach history and you do many pop quizzes." He got it down.

"Tell me it _word-for-word_."

"Uh…" this boy wasn't any better in that category.

"Fail. Ms. Sutton," he asked.

"Ladies and gentlemen. My name is Mr. Solomon. I do not let people into my room after the bell. So arrive ON TIME. I teach history obviously and I have a lot of pop quizzes. So be on guard. Would you like me to continue, Mr. Solomon?" she questioned. Wow, this girl had it down.

"That is fine," he replied. "Now that will be happening frequently so pay attention." With that he started class.

What a LONG class.

And FINALLY it ended.

After what felt like FIVE HOURS.

I quickly gathered up my notebooks, only to be intercepted by Zach.

"Come on, Zach. Let me grab my stuff," I pleaded. I really wanted to just get OUT of HERE.

"One question for you, Gallagher Girl." I looked up at what he called me. Gallagher Girl?

"Well you did go to that school right?" he asked me. I slowly nodded, trying to grab my stuff.

Instead he grabbed it for me and asked, "How do you know my name?"

I rolled my eyes and walked out. I could get my notebooks from him tomorrow.

"Whoa, don't leave me," he said, running to catch up with me.

"Why don't you give me my stuff before I sick my brother on you," I said through clenched teeth. I really have had enough of this boy. I was tired and I just wanted to get away.

"Huh, okay," with that he left. I sighed in relief. Only to remember he had my notebooks. Oh whatever. I would hope he brought them tomorrow. After that class, every other class seemed to go fast enough. And _finally_ the day was over. Done. Complete. Finished.

I walked to my locker after last class. No one bothered me that time. I waited patiently for the people around me to finish up. They hogged so much room it was almost impossible to get in my locker. Finally they were done too. But by then the halls were pretty much empty. Sighing I opened my locker, only to find a few notes.

"Hey Cams!

Mom told me to tell you to meet us by the flag pole in back.

- Grant"

Okay. Whatever. I stuck it in my pocket. I opened the next one.

"I have your notebooks hostage Gallagher Girl! You won't get them back til you tell me!

- Z"

Tell him what? Oh right. How I know his name. Whatever. I stuffed it in my pocket. I opened the next one.

"I think I like you. You're so different then other girls."

I flipped the piece of paper over no name, initial, anything. See, these kinds of notes waste my time. I crumbled it into a ball. I don't know why but I checked to make sure no one was coming. I went across from the garbage and shot the paper ball into it. Perfect shot.

I through the rest of my books into my backpack and started my way out of school. It felt good to be outside again. I smiled and started to run. As I neared the flag pole I slowed down. I did not want to show that to my family. Last time I did I was teased forever.

I walked over and my mom honked. I quickly walked over and hopped in.

"Took you long enough," Grant said.

"Yeah, when you get enough love notes, Grant-" Macey started but mom cut them off.

"How about ice cream?" she asked us.

"Sounds good," I said.

"You know how many calories-" Mace was about to go on about some rant but Grant cut her off.

"Yum, lets go."

So we drove to the nearest ice cream shop. It was only 2 blocks away from our house. I was going to love summer.

I ordered a chocolate and cookie's and cream double, and started eating before anyone else was served.

"Cammie and her ice cream. Don't mess with it!" Grant teased. I looked up at him with a pout.

"Cammie doesn't like it when people make fun of her and her ice cream," I replied back. By then he was cracking up.

We walked out the door. I decided I wanted to walk home. It was so pretty out in the fall, I wanted to talk a walk.

"Hey, mom. Can I meet you guys at home?" I asked her.

"What? Got a date?" Mace asked.

"No. The scenery!" Grant teased. I rolled my eyes and started walking on home.

It was really beautiful here. The leaves were already different colors and it was early September. I walked on, eating my ice cream and minding my own business when someone decided to ruin it.

"Hey, Gallagher Girl!"

Ugh, that voice was not one I wanted to hear.

"Hi, Zach," I wearily said. I really didn't feel like talking. Then he shut up. He didn't say anything. After the block it was getting kind of uncomfortable so I broke the silence.

"Do you want anything?" I blurted. I tried not to sound mean, but it may have come out that way.

"Well, I was going to pester you about my name, but it looks like you were interested in the scenery. I'll give you a break today," he replied. That just made me want to talk to him. Augh.

"So you decided to follow me?" I asked him. Did he want to figure out where I lived? Because I really didn't want that.

"No. I'm going home. At first I thought you were following me but that made no sense because you were walking in font of me."

Oh.

"But I this is my spot so I guess I'll see you later!" With that he went running up to the house. I went pale.

My house was next door.

We were neighbors.


	2. neighbors and picnics

Zach, probably realizing I was still standing there, looked back.

"What's wrong, Gallagher Girl?" he asked.

"Uh, nothing," I replied. There was no way I wanted him to know that I lived next door. He nodded and waved again, then went into his house. Since I knew he was going to watch me I walked on. I decided I would just walk around the neighbor hood rather than have him know that I lived next door.

"CAMMIE!!"

Grant, you dope.

"Cammie, mom wants you!" I wearily walked back to my house. I kept my eyes on my house. I did not want to see Zach's expression. Maybe just a little peek… He was smirking. I looked away right away.

"Director of product enhancements," I muttered as I passed him.

"Hey, what did I do to be called a dope?" he asked me.

"CAMMIE?" I heard my mom call.

"Coming!" I yelled back. I entered her work room. "What's up?"

"The neighbors invited us to a barbeque, and I accepted. It's tonight and I wanted to let you know," she told me. A warning sign was flashing inside of my head.

"Which neighbors?" I asked.

"Oh the ones right next door," she said, and pointed.

At Zach's house.

~*~*~*~

"Hey, Gallagher Girl," Zach cheerily smirked as he opened the door to my family.

"Hi," I muttered back.

"The family's outback. You can go through the house," he kept going. "Just head straight and go though the glass doors." He was smirking like crazy, and it was annoying me to no end. Then I felt Grant's looming presence behind me. My fake smile left. That was Zach's clue to get a move on it. Grant put his hands on my shoulders. Zach started to lead us through the house, but then my mom saw some paintings and started asking him about it. He went off in detail. I rolled my eyes and walked to the backyard along with my siblings.

"HI!!" an over excited cheery voice called. My attention went to this person. It was his mom. She was super pretty. I felt Grant's hands get warm. Grant was blushing! He would NOT hear the end of this one.

"Hi, I'm Cammie, this is Grant, and this is Mace," I said. Pointing my family out.

"MACEY," Mace corrected. Oh I forgot. She doesn't like anyone calling her that except me. Ha.

"Is your dad coming?" I was assuming who his father asked.

"He's coming later," I announced happily. My dad was coming home from the navy today. A smile involuntarily crept onto my face.

"Whoa, someone's happy glow is going off," Zach's remark came. I looked over and he was smirking. I rolled my eyes. Why did he always ruin moments?

"Dad's coming home today isn't he?" Grant asked.

"Like you weren't the one marking the days off on your calendar," Macey scoffed. Everyone laughed.

"So your father is in the…?" Mr. Goode trailed off.

"Navy. So I don't know why they called him in. But I know he's supposed to be home in an hour," I replied excitedly. I missed my dad. Grant laughed at me.

"Excited much?" Grant asked me. I gave him a pouting face. That made everyone laugh again. From the way that this was going I knew that these barbeques were going to happen more often.

"Burgers are done!" Mr. Goode called. I looked over and he had gone back to tending the grill. When did he leave?

Zach grabbed a plate and ran over to the grill. Hungry much? "Zach, guests first?" his dad reminded him. He stepped back. I strolled over to grab a plate and went over to the grill. I nodded at Zach. He rolled his eyes. His dad put a hamburger on my plate.

"Thank you," I said and went over to the table next to the grill. They had all the stuff to put in the burgers there. I put on cheese, ketchup, and all that other stuff, then went over to the grass. I don't know why but I hated to sit at tables when we do picnics. Grant followed me to my spot, but went a little farther so he could lean back on the fence, sighing I crawled over a little to sit by him and lay on my stomach. Soon enough Macey joined us.

"Ugh, can't we use a blanket at least?" she asked. Almost on cue a blanket dropped on her.

"You guys like eating on grass, huh?" Zach asked us.

"More like Cam does, but we sit together. ALWAYS," Grant said, somewhat harshly. I took it that Grant didn't like Zach very much.

"Huh," Zach replied. "Mind if I sit with you?" Jeez, this kid was asking to sit with us at his own house.

"Uh-" I started. There was really no way I could refuse at his own house.

"I'M HOME!" a male voice called. A door closed. I jumped up and hopped the fence and ran in through the back door.

"Dad!" I yelled running at him.

"Hey, Kiddo!" he responded and pulling me into a hug.

"I missed you," I told him.

"Me too. Where is everyone? Out back?" he asked.

"No, the neighbors invited us over for a barbeque. Let's go," I urged him. We walked out back.

"Hey, there's no door," he whispered into my ear.

"I jumped it," I told him honestly. He laughed. I see where Grant got his laugh.

I hopped over it and mom was about to say something when dad jumped over.

"Chris! You are going to break that fence!" Oh, my mom was going to scold me. I chuckled as dad took his scolding.

"Wait, Chris as in Chris Morgan?" I looked over and Mr. Goode had stood up.

"Hey, Matty!" my dad said as he went over to Mr. Goode and did that weird boy hug thing.

"I haven't seen you since high school, man!" Mr. Goode said to my dad.

"Yeah, it's been a while," my dad went on. Wait, our parents knew each other?!

"I see you married Ms. Prom Queen," dad said. Mrs. Goode blushed. I saw mom put on a small smile.

"Chris," Mrs. Goode said.

"How are you, Natalie?" dad asked. It fit Mrs. Goode perfectly. She looked like, a 'Natalie'. That was kind of weird but whatever.

"Hey, don't pull any tricks on my wife, Morgan," Mr. Goode threatened. There must've been some history… Hmmm.

"Matt, stop it," Mrs. Goode said blushing. I returned my attention to my siblings, but they looked just as interested as I was.

"So Grant, how was class?" I asked. It was awkward just staring at our parents.

"Uh, it was… interesting," he said, picking up my vibe.

"Are you kidding me?" Macey asked. "All we did was things like introducing ourselves or like doing little activities. I found out I was the youngest in the grade! And my fashion is _still_ better than theirs! Some people have a year on me!"

"Okay, Mace. We get the point. I didn't want the whole evening to be wasted by Mace's rants.

"You know what I'm mad about?" Grant spoke up.

"What?" I asked him. He usually didn't get mad.

"How it's going to take a week to get my car," he stated. I rolled my eyes. Our parents forgot his car at Grandpa's house and that was in Nebraska. We were in Virginia.

"Well it was partially your fault, Grant," I said.

"How," he demanded.

"Well if you would've remembered your own car-" I didn't even need to finish. Grant put his hand over my mouth.

"Just shut up," he muttered. I shrugged. I mean I was just saying…

"Hey guys," dad came over to us.

"Hey dad," Grant said with a nod. I knew on the inside he wanted to get up and hug him like I did, but he had an 'image' to maintain.

"Hi Daddy," Macey said looking at her nails. She was such a suck up sometimes. At least she didn't want anything right now so she was somewhat not acting.

"Mr. Morgan," Zach said nodding.

"Please call me, Chris," dad said with a smile. I rolled my eyes. I had a bad feeling about these two. Dad went back over by the adults

"I'm done," Grant said.

"Same here," Mace said.

"Looks like this party is wrapping up," I announced.

"Hey, you kids want pie?" we whipped our heads around to see Mrs. Goode bringing out pie.

"Mom, makes the best pies," Zach said. I looked at him.

"Well see," I said. I mean my mom made some pretty good pies too. We ran over there and each got a slice.

"What kind of pie is it?" I asked. It didn't really matter. I would eat it anyways.

"Apple," Mrs. Goode replied. I took a bite.

Man, this was _good_. I took another bite savoring the taste.

"Told ya," Zach smirked at me. I gave him a glare and went back to eating my pie happily.

"Cammie got clean up!" Grant yelled as he ran back to the house.

"As if!" I screamed back. I put my empty plate back on the table and sprinted after him. He stupidly decided to go around to the gate. I hopped the fence.

"Cameron Anne Morgan!!" I heard my mom yell my name but I was already in the house before I turned around. I didn't know what it was with my mom and hopping fences. It's not like I was jumping into flowers… I looked at the soles of my shoes. No petals. I looked out the window. Yup. No flowers. I ran up the stairs to my room. I claimed it because one of the walls were all glass and I could see everything so clearly. The room I was in was strange. It was a triangular shape and the peek was pointing outwards. I had a beautiful view of our backyard, and into the woods. But I also had about half of the wall of the Goode's if I was sitting more than half way up of the room. I looked over there. They had a balcony. Great. On the opposite side of the glass I had a door that led to a balcony. So I could probably go look at stars at night. My bed was in the crook of the peek, considering that I had no real good place to put it. I lined it up by the glass window, but enough to put a drape down. At the top of the glass there was a little drape thing that went up or down, whatever I wanted it to do. So if I didn't want people to see me, I would put it down. If I wanted to see outside, I could put it up. I was probably going to keep it down most of the time, but it was nice to have that option.

I quickly change into sweats and one of Grant's old shirts. My family did hand me downs. Or rather _I_ did hand me downs because Macey always wanted new stuff and Grant was a guy. So I got the aftermath of their clothing. Not that I really minded though. It was strange how Macey's clothes fit onto me but I didn't say anything.

I slid down the railing into dad.

"Oof!" he muffled.

"Cameron Anne! Don't slide down the railing. You could hurt someone. You're just lucky you landed on dad instead of Macey or me," my mom scolded. It seemed she scolded me on a lot of things, but she just wanted me to be more of a girl. She _never_ scolded Grant when he did those things. Well unless he hopped a fence. She always yells at us saying we'll break a fence again… We only broke that flimsy wired fence because about 20 people were jumping on it at once…

"Sorry," I muttered as I walked into the kitchen. I loved my mom but she could just be annoying sometimes.

Our Kitchen was really pretty too. One of the walls was almost glass. Our refrigerator and cupboards were over there. And we had our sink and counter. But in between the counter and shelves was glass. The other wall led into our garage and had more shelves and cupboards. Then the last wall was glass. It had a sliding door and that was it. This one was also on the side of the woods. As I recall I think anything that faced the woods was glass. Hm, I'll have to check that later.

I went to the fridge and pulled out some milk and Oreos. Nothing better than Oreos after pie. After I pulled out the milk and Oreos I sat down. Then I stupidly remembered that I forgot a cup. For being the smartest child here I was had my slow moments. I opened the cupboard and was reaching for a cup when a knock startled me. My hand almost slipped into the glass cups. If I would've broken anyone of those my mom would've had my head. I turned around glaring, figuring it was Grant trying to make me slip up or something. I was startled to see Zach taping at the glass. I went to the door.

"What do you want?" I asked, anger dripping off every word.

"Sorry, for startling you but I couldn't catch your attention. So I knocked and you pretty much slipped," Zach replied. I rolled my eyes.

"So why you here?" I questioned.

"My dad wanted to give your dad this," he handed me a letter, "so he sent me over." He shrugged. See you tomorrow at school. I groaned. I forgot. Beside the fact of being his neighbor, I'd have to see this kid everyday for the next how many months.

I went to give dad his letter and returned to the kitchen, only to find Mace and Grant eating my Oreos.

"What are you doing!" I cried out. There were only like 5 Oreos left and only 1 was remaining.

"That's what you get when you leave things out," Mace replied.

"Snooze, you loose," Grant said smiling. "We left you the last one so be glad." I went over and took the last Oreo. Stupid siblings.

"Well, I'm going upstairs. You guys can clean up," I told them, leaving the kitchen before I could hear their protest.

I ran up the stair into my room. I had boxes piled high and my mom was bringing more in. "Mom?" I questioned.

"Oh hey, honey," she replied. "This is all your stuff. Dad's bringing up your shelves so you can unpack. I internally groaned. I would most likely spend the rest of the evening looking for my bed sheets. I had to use towels last night. Oh the joy.

But I was right. I had to spend the rest of my 2 hours looking for real bed sheets so I could get at least a _normal_ rest. Exhaustedly I flopped down on my bed, and went to sleep.


	3. pictures

"Cammie~!"

Will there ever be a day where I'll wake up to a normal alarm? Mace pulled the little rope to bring up my drapes. I pulled my sheets over my head and rolled over.

"Your room is a mess! How do you expect to find clothes in this mess!" Mace kept going on. Finally after a while she left after setting something on my bed. But as soon as I heard the door close my alarm went blaring off.

"_The whole damn world is just as obsessed, with who's the best dressed, and who's having sex_

_Whose got the money, who gets the honeys,_

_Who's kind of cute, and who's just a mess_

_And you still don't have the right look, and you don't have the right friends_

_Nothing changes but the faces, the names, and the trends,_

_HIGH SCHOOL NEVER ENDS!_"

I chucked my pillow at my alarm, knocking it off the stand and pulling the plug out of the socket. I did NOT want to listen to that song right now. Groaning I threw the covers over me and curled into a ball, hoping fore more sleep.

That dream was crumbled as soon as Grant jumped onto my bed.

"Wakey, Wakey, Cammie!" he cooed as he pulled my blankets off.

I sat up. Head rush! Groaning I clutched my head. "I'm up, I'm up. Happy?" I asked.

"Very," Macey replied. I opened my eyes to see her give Grant money.

"You bribed your own brother?" I asked in disbelief.

"It got you up didn't it?" I looked over at my alarm. Wait, it was unplugged.

"What time is it exactly?" I asked Mace.

"Like 6:50." School starts at 8:20. I wake up at 7:40.

"You mean to say I could've slept for another hour?" I growled.

"Fine. Be that way. It's picture day today so I guess you want a bad picture," she said, obviously annoyed that I didn't appreciate her.

"You still need to get ready right?" I asked her.

"Yeah, so what's your point?" she asked jumping right to it.

"Wake me up when you're done with your own primping," I said. I threw the covers over me and went back to sleep for a little. But Mace woke me up again.

"I'm done, princess. Now get up so I can tend to you," Mace said ripping the covers off of me.

"Time?" I asked. I knew I wasn't going to get away with it, but I might as well know how long I was going to have to endure this.

"7:05. Deal with it." So I had 15 minutes of sleep… I guess it was better than none. Yawning I stood up. Only to be pushed back on the bed by Macey.

"Sit," she commanded. I sat on the side of the bed. I saw movement in one of the windows over at Zach's house, but only for a mil-second. I thought I felt someone watching me… Creepy. I quickly dismissed the thought and sat still so that Macey could work wonders on my hair. I still felt as if someone was watching me, but I didn't even look. I mean it couldn't be some stalker that is planning to kill me… could it? As if.

"Alright, try not to mess up your hair as you put your clothes on. I laid them out for you already." I looked over at the end of my bed sat some jeans with a regular white Nike shirt with a 'Just Do It' logoed on it and a Puma sports jacket. I grinned. She knew me well.

My hair was just straightened, so I didn't really know why Mace was freaking out, but I took off my pajamas 'carefully' or rather slowly to mock Macey.

"Just put it on," Macey grumbled. I smiled. I threw on the shirt and slid into the jeans. I zipped up the sports jacket.

To be honest I looked like normal Cammie except my hair was totally straight with no knots or kinks.

I slid down the railing almost into an unhappy Grant. He was wearing a normal plain white shirt with some cargo shorts and some puka shell necklace.

"Steal Macey's jewelry?" I teased.

"Not funny, Cameron. Mom is saying we should walk to school. That kid next door does it I guess," Grant said, jerking his thumb over towards Zach's house. My smile left my face.

"MOM!"

~*~*~*~

"Remind me why we're doing this?" I asked as the group of us walked to school.

"My parents are gay and they think it's good for me. And since our parents are _best friends_ your thought you should do the same," Zach explained.

"That was a rhetorical question," Grant almost yelled at Zach. Grant wasn't in the best mood today.

"I love you, Grant," I said in a sing-song voice. The mood needed to be lightened.

"I thought you didn't like music," Zach told me. I looked at him.

"You don't think _I_ like music?" I asked.

"Well I did see you massacre your alarm clock this morning," Zach started. I glared at him. He needed to shut up. So the little punk was spying on me.

"Can I kill him?" Grant asked. I looked over and he looked like he was about to die of restraint.

"Have mercy!!" Zach said in a mocking voice.

"Well, mercy is placed between Massacre and Murder in the alphabet," I pretended to ponder. "Ah, let it go, Grant. He probably doesn't want to mess up his face before pictures."

Zach glared at me along with Grant, although they were both glaring for different reasons.

"Hey, Zach," Macey started, "doesn't Cammie look just amazing today?" she asked. I went pale. Not a good thing to ask in front of Grant and me. If he says yes, Grant will for sure pound him. If he says no, Grant _and_ I will for sure pound him.

He smirked. "Doesn't she always," he said in a teasing voice. He winked at me and ran. That was when I realized we were only a few blocks away from school. We were close enough to see it. I saw Grant about to go after him but I told him to drop it. Grant threw me a glance. My look said it. After school. That was when I remembered I was going to hang out with Jonas! Shoot!

"Man, I forgot! I have something after school today!" I quickly said. Grant raised his eyebrow. "NOT, with Zach."

"Alright. You got a ride home or?" Grant asked.

"Yeah. I'm good."

By then we were on school grounds. Everyone was staring at us. I saw _many_ people blush. I guess that's what you get for having siblings like them.

I saw Bex and I smiled. She waved and went back to her friends. I saw the boys that were over there totally melt.

We walked through the doors and parted with Macey. She strutted off, as usual.

I saw a lot of people move out of the way for us. It was hilarious. It was like the Red Sea parting for Moses. Finally I got to my locker and Grant waved me off. Like thirty seconds after Grant left, it went back to normal. I went up to my locker and over heard the people next to me.

"Man, those Morgan girls are _hot_."

"Yeah! You always see Macey strutting her way down anywhere, showing utter dominance!"

"Dude, Cammie's the hot one. Too bad her brother is always right next to her. I don't ever see her otherwise."

I blushed. The boy didn't even know that my locker was right next to his.

I opened my locker, only to find a whole lot more of notes. I grimaced. I took out a little bucket type thing from my backpack and put it on one of the hooks. I threw all of the notes in there. I could check them out later. Like after school. I stuffed my backpack into the locker and grabbed my books for first class. I knew I was early but I didn't want to stick around here.

I walked into class and no one was there. Mr. Robinson looked up startled.

"Ms. Morgan! Can I help you?" he asked.

"Oh, no. I'm just getting ready for class," I replied.

"Oh, oh. I don't normally get students this early." Well how early was it?! I looked at the clock. 8:05. Wow. Okay, maybe I was a little early… "So how was your day yesterday?" he asked.

"It was interesting," I replied. Met a lot of different people. A lot of weird teachers…

"Do you like English?" he asked me. 'If I don't fall asleep during your class then yes' I wanted to reply, but I was nicer than that.

"Yeah, I like to write," I honestly told him.

"Well would you like to run an errand for me?" he asked.

"Uh, sure," I replied. Can you turn a teacher down if you want them to like you?

"Would you go to the office and ask them to make 35 copies of this?" he asked, handing me a sheet of paper.

"Alright," I said. I looked up at the clock. 8:11. Still no one was here. I got up and started out the door. I ran down the halls and I got to the office. 8:16. Running through crowds of people was tiring. I walked in only to see a boy laying down on the bed.

"Um," I started. I was sure this was the main office. Yet it looked like the nurse's office.

"The main office was the door on the left. You passed it," the boy told me, not even looking at me.

"Oh, thanks," I said.

"No problem," he replied. I walked over to the main office.

"Should we contact Kyle's parents?" I heard a woman's voice.

"No. Not yet. He fainted right? Is he awake yet?" a male voice asked. Then the woman came out.

"Oh, excuse me," she said as she went out the door and into the next room. So the boy's name was Jacob…

"Excuse me," I said as I entered the office.

"Can I help you?" another woman asked. I looked at her name plate. Mrs. Jo Gamet secretary. I could probably ask her to make a copy.

"I need to make copies," I said.

"Alright," she said as she got up. "How many do you need?" she asked.

"35." She got to work on it right away. But the printer was jammed or something.

"Sorry, Sweetie. It's jammed. It might take a few minutes."

"Oh, alright," I said.

"Why don't you go wait in the nurse's office." she suggested. I walked over there. The nurse was again gone and I looked at 'Kyle'. He was sitting up this time.

"Hey," I said. Might as well make another friend. He looked up.

"Aren't you that Morgan girl everyone's talking about?" he asked me. Well I had no idea.

"No clue. Name's Cammie Morgan." I said, trying to start a conversation.

"Kyle Heag," he said.

"I heard you fainted."

"I heard you were hot."

"Sexist much?"

"Hey, I'm only saying what I heard."

"So how did you faint?"

"I was running all night." _Why?_

The secretary woman came in.

"Here you go, Sweetie," she said giving me the copies.

"Thank you," I replied.

"Talk to you later?" Kyle asked me.

"Yeah, sure. Watch out for Grant," I warned him before I went off. No one was in the halls. Crap. I hurried to the classroom. The door was shut. I took a deep breath. I was supposed to get copies so I should be fine. I knocked. Mr. Robinson opened the door.

"Come in," he said opening the door. The whole class was staring at me. Very uncomfortable. "The class has already started on the writing assignment, so here you go," he gave me one of the papers. I felt pretty stupid, going to make copies and not looking once to see what it was.

I looked at the assignment. 'Write about a person you talked with today. 100 words.' Easy enough.

_I met a boy named Kyle Heag today. He has black hair and he was wearing a plain white t-shirt with worn out jeans. He had his right hear pierced once and his left ear twice. One was of them were a pair, stubs. The other one was a small hoop, barely fitting around his ear. I guess he fainted because he was running all night. I was going to ask why but the secretary came in and gave me the copies I was waiting for. We decided we would talk again later, that is if he can find me. I told him to be careful of you-know-who. He looked at me as if that were a joke. But it isn't._

Ha. I even wrote 18 words over (if you counted you-know-who as one word). Hopefully this would pass. I looked around. A lot of people were still writing. I decided to write another one.

_Zachary Goode. What a weirdo. I had to walk to school because of him. He has bright green eyes, with brown hair. It's not long, but it's not super-short. He laughs and smirks and grins. It's almost as if he thinks anything is a joke. He looks at people as if he can read them, and he watched me this morning! That pervert!_

"Alright, class. Time's up." Wait! I didn't have 100 words on my second one yet!

Mr. Robinson went around and picked up everyone's papers. "Shall I read someone's?" he asked us. There were some yes and some no, but over all I think yes won. Well I know it won because he picked out a random paper and read it out loud.

"_I met a boy named Kyle Heag today. He has black hair and he was wearing a plain white t-shirt with worn out jeans. He had his right hear pierced once and his left ear twice. One was of them were a pair, stubs. The other one was a small hoop, barely fitting around his ear. I guess he fainted because he was running all night. I was going to ask why but the secretary came in and gave me the copies I was waiting for. We decided we would talk again later, that is if he can find me. I told him to be careful of you-know-who. He looked at me as if that were a joke. But it isn't._"

I looked around the class, making it look like I was looking for whoever wrote that. I knew I wrote it but I didn't want people to know that. It should have been obvious who wrote it, considering I came into class late with copies in my hand, but everyone wasn't looking at me and they were looking at some other guy so I just followed the class.

He put the paper back in the pile and put it on his desk.

"Have a good day," he said with a smile, leaving us confused. Then the bell rang. Oh. I got up and gathered my stuff.

"Hey, Cammie," Bex greeted me cheerily after class.

"Hi, Bex," I smiled. Someone bumped into me hard. I turned around and Tina was walking away. Then I got another bump, but this one was friendlier. I looked over and Zach smiled back at me and then went after Tina.

"He so likes you," Bex told me as we walked to my locker.

"Like you know," I said rolling my eyes.

"He never smiles anymore, and then you come and he's a grinning machine!" I opened my locker. More notes. What the heck people. Haven't they ever heard of face to face?

"Do boys not talk to girls?" I asked Bex.

"What? Yeah, unless they're embarrassed," Bex responded. I threw the notes into my little bucket. I pulled out my next subject.

"We have pictures next," Bex stopped me.

"Oh," I muttered.

"Don't you ever look at your schedule?" she giggled. I rolled my eyes. She stuffed her stuff into my locker (her locker was on the other side of the school) and we walked to the gym. Already so many people were there.

"Um, how do they take pictures at your school?" I asked. At my old school they just did it by homeroom. I was pretty sure about half the grade was in the gym.

"The whole grade takes them at once. It's like a mixer for the next hour and a half." I internally groaned. I picked up my little slip thing at the table at the entrance.

"LAST NAMES A - F PLEASE COME FOR PICTURES!" a voice rang out.

"That's me!" Bex said. "I'll be right back!" She went running into some line. I sighed. Back to being alone. I walked over to the plastic bleachers. Everyone was on the floor talking and laughing. It would be awkward just to go talk to someone. That's when I saw a boy sleeping on the bleachers a little ways away from me. A boy who looked like Kyle Heag. Suddenly I heard Zach's voice. I looked over to see him leading his little clique over towards me. I got up and went over to Kyle. I shook him awake.

"Huh? What?' he mumbled out. He looked sleep deprived.

"Hi," I said. He sat up fast. 'Head rush' I mentally thought. Just as I predicted he grabbed his head.

"Owww," he mumbled.

"Well you kind of have to expect it," I told him, "you sat up quick enough." I looked over. Zach had disappeared along with his posse. Thank goodness. He gave me a look. "Just saying," I defended.

"You're different, Morgan," he told me.

"No shit, Sherlock," I countered. He cracked a smile.

"You play sports?" he asked me.

"I do, but I don't have a solid one," I replied.

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"I play a lot of different sports. As in like a different one every year. I'm trying out every sport."

"You're a junior. How can you afford to do that? Don't the coaches talk to you?"

"Yeah, well, my last school didn't have school sports so I had to do a wreck league or public. It was no guarantee that I was going to come back the next year."

He looked at me weird. "What kind of school doesn't have sports?" he asked me.

"My old one," I laughed.

"You play basketball?" he asked me.

"I've played before, but that experience kind of ruined it for me."

"Wana play me some time?"

"Bring it on," I smirked.

"LAST NAMES G - M PLEASE COME TO GET YOUR PICTURES TAKEN!" the voice rang out.

"Sounds like us," he said.

"Let's go then." We walked over to get in line. We were near the front, only 6 people in front of us.

"You look great, so don't worry," he told me, as if expecting me to ask him how I looked.

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"These pictures are our id's for the next 2 years," he said. "Usually a girl is sweating before this." I laughed.

"Whatever." Then we were escorted to take our pictures. After they took it we were sent to a table.

"What do we do here?" I asked Kyle.

"Wait for our ids. We have to wait for the next 2."

"Hey, Gallagher Girl." Ugh, not him again.

"Hi, Zach," I responded rolling my eyes. Kyle yawned. It made me laugh a little. I hadn't even noticed Zach behind us.

"Here are your ids," a woman gave the people in front of us our ids.

"Cameron Morgan," a lady asked.

"Yeah?" I asked. She just handed me my id. I studied it while waiting for Kyle to get his.

I thought it was a good picture. But then again I didn't really care.

"So how is it?" Kyle asked me. I looked up. That's when I noticed how tall he was. He had probably a head on me.

"Not bad. Trade?" We traded cards. He was smiling and he looked… nice.

"Nice picture," he told me, handing back my id.

"Not bad yourself."

Not bad at all.


	4. hacking

"So, you want to shoot some hoops?" Kyle asked me jerking his thumb over towards the gym floor.

"Uh, don't you think there's too many people?" I asked. I mean, I don't want to nail some poor kid in the head because we were screwing around…

"They can move," he responded. I grinned.

"Ball?" I questioned.

"Come on, really? Have you never broke into a room before?" we were over by the equipment room and he started fiddling with the lock. He pulled out a bobby pin. I stifled a laugh.

"Why do you have a bobby pin?" I asked through my hand. He shot me a look.

"Well, let's see. How else am I going to get into things when it's locked?" I shrugged. He opened the door. He went in and pulled out the basketball crate.

"Grab a basketball!" he yelled. He snatched a good ball and left. A crowd of people were coming over to get a basketball. We left the area and started to shoot some hoops. The people who were sitting at the table were now over trying to get people to stop grabbing basketballs. 'Too late' I mentally thought. Already people were shooting baskets. It was kind of their fault for leaving all the hoops down. With all of them down there were 10 hoops for 300 students. Now admittedly some people didn't go grab basketballs and instead they went to go sit down on the bleachers. Plus there weren't enough balls for everyone to have one, so there were a lot of mini games being played. Such as mini teams and going back and forth. Also if you minus those people who sat down there were 10 hoops for 100 of us. And even all of us weren't shooting baskets. Luckily Kyle and I got a hoop to ourselves, and we were playing around the world.

"This is too easy," I whined.

"No kidding. I never remembered it to be this easy," he replied.

"Hey, can I join?" Bex was behind me with a basketball.

"Yeah!" I exclaimed. Then we could play horse or something. Or like single elimination.

We started playing. We had been going on for a solid 5 minutes before Bex got out. By then we had a lot of onlookers. Kyle and I kept on going, it was a while before finally it just got old and we called a truce. We started a new game. A lot of other people wanted to do it too, so we had a line of like, 20 people playing. Pretty much everyone else was doing the same thing, so there were lines of people just shooting hoops. It all usually came down to Kyle and me so we just called it truce. But then we decided to do an all game, the best 2 of that hoop plays the other 2 best of the other hoops. So it was Kyle and me from our hoop (you know it feels nice to brag that) and the other people. We played it down, all the way to the last 10. Then everyone's attention was turned to the 10. It was Kyle Heag, me, Jacob Fallon, Andrew Brutlag, Sophie Wheeler, Joe Ryan, Zach Goode, Maggie Jackson, Nick Chang, and Tyler Dhine.

"Go Zachy!" I heard Tina scream. I felt bad for him. I chuckled under my breath. I looked over and he wasn't smiling. Well, there's a first for everything.

Well after 3 minutes Joe got out. After that people started dropping. Under 5 minutes Tyler Dhine, Maggie, Andrew, and Nick got out. I don't know why they call him Tyler Dhine but they call him by his full name. Deal with it.

I didn't know that Zach was good at basketball, but I didn't know a lot of things about him. He was right in front of me. I grinned. If anyone was going to get him out, it was going to be me. A few minutes later, Sophie was knocked out. Great. Now I was the only girl left. I had a lot of girls cheering for me, and I think I lived up to it. Finally I was able to knock Zach out. His ball hit the rim and he got it and shot, but I was too quick. My shot went in for just net. He looked back at me and smirked and shook his head. What did that mean?! He passed the ball to Kyle who then resumed the game. I quickly ran to get the ball and passed it to Jacob. So he was my next target, huh? We played for a solid 5 minutes, making perfect shots. Finally someone slipped up. That was Jacob.

He shot the ball it hit the backboard and bounced over the rim. I shot the ball before he even got to it. It was back to a one on one with me and Kyle. Yippee. He shot, I shot, he shot, I shot, he shot, I shot. It went on like that for quite some while, but then the ball slipped. I was already tracking the ball. I got to the ball when Kyle placed his shot. My only chance was to hit his ball and hopefully knock it off track. I did so. I made contact and his ball went flying the other way.

"HEY!" he yelled.

You ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'.

I shot the ball in the basket and waited for him to return with his ball.

"Cheap shot," he muttered under his breath. I smiled back at him. He was lucky I had the graces to wait for him instead of shoot and win.

He shot, I shot, he shot, I shot. It went on back and forth like that. Until finally the bell rang signifying us all to go back to class.

"Man, I bet Cammie was going to win too!" I heard a guy say.

"No way dude, it was Kyle all the way," his friend said back.

"How? She was putting up a mean fight," he fired right back.

"Kyle got a _scholarship_ here for basketball. He was probably only going easy on her." My eyes widened involuntarily. No way. Kyle got a scholarship _here_? This place never handed out scholarships I heard! That must mean he was really good.

I went to my locker, Bex was already waiting for me.

"HELLO!" she cheerily said with a smile.

"Hey," I grinned back.

"That was some awesome shooting back there," Bex complimented.

"Thank you," I replied as I opened my locker. More notes. Augh. I put them in the basket and handed Bex her books. The basket was getting sort of full, I'm not sure how much more it could take.

I spent the next period, wondering about Kyle and his scholarship. I have no idea why but I just did.

"Earth to Cammie!"

"Huh, what!" surprised I sprang back. Bex laughed.

"Someone's out of it! I just wanted to let you know that class was over," she told me. I looked around. Everyone was gone already. I quickly gathered my stuff and walked to my locker. I opened it and more notes were stuffed in there. Now this was getting ridiculous. I shoved the notes down in the bucket so more could fit. I had never had to do that before.

I shoved my books and stuff in my locker and walked off too lunch.

~*~*~*~*~

I walked into Mr. Solomon's class early. I didn't want to be kicked out for being too close. I walked in. Today the front row was completely taken. I walked to the back. Today he was different. He didn't ask us questions. Instead on the board, it told us to read pages 7~69 and follow the questions that were placed on his desk. I got to it right away as some people quietly talked among themselves. Really people? READ THE BOARD. We were reading about the Civil War, and I knew the Civil War frontwards to backwards. I quickly scanned the pages, absorbing all of the information. After I finished, I looked at the clock. Already more than half the class was over. I got up. The people in the front were still talking. I went to his desk.

"Very good, Mrs. Morgan," he told me as he handed me a sheet.

Finally the other students looked up at the board and hurriedly got to work.

As I was walking back I saw Ms. Sutton make her way up to Mr. Solomon. Huh, I wonder what her first name was.

I walked to my seat and started filling out the questions. Some of them were really hard. I felt bad for those who hadn't read already. I finished my worksheet just as the bell rang.

"Hand in your sheets to as far as you've completed," Mr. Solomon ordered us. I saw some kids groan and grumble. Well it was their fault for not reading what was RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM.

I looked over to my right, only startled to see Zach.

"Took you long enough," he muttered. I grabbed my stuff and practically ran out the room. After giving Mr. Solomon my sheet that is.

"Hey, Gallagher Girl! Try not to embarrass me that much next time," I looked back to see Zach jogging to catch up with me.

"You mean basketball? I'll kick your ass anytime," I told him.

"Harsh enough," he muttered. I scoffed. Which caused him to laugh. Domino affect here people.

"Hey, where are my notebooks?" I asked him. He was lucky we didn't do any note taking today.

"Right here," he said, showing me my notebooks behind his own.

"Zach, just give me back my notebooks."

"Answer my question."

"You were making out in front of my locker. Of course people were talking about me breaking you and Tina up." It wasn't the truth but it would have to do.

He tossed me my notebooks and left. What the hell!

I went to my class as usual and finally school ended. I waited for everyone to clear out before I went to my locker. I opened it. No more notes. 'Thank god' I mentally sighed. I threw my books in and emptied the note bucket into my backpack.

"Cammie! There you are," I spun around to see Jonas running at me. I smiled. Day one of learning how to hack.

"Hey, Jonas! Sorry, I was waiting for everyone to finish up."

"What's that?" he pointed at my bucket. I opened my backpack and tossed it to him.

"Uh wow. You're popular. Better hope Grant doesn't get on them," he replied. I grinned. I think Jonas was afraid of Grant, and I don't blame him. Just looking at his biceps freak out enough people.

"So, are we going to the computer room?" I asked him.

"Yep, follow me." With that we went through the school to the computer room.

We started up two computers and started to talk. I learned that Jonas was really smart, and he was supposed to go to Blackthrone or something, it was some elite school for intelligent people. But he didn't go because of something. He didn't tell me why so I didn't press it. We logged on to the desktop and then he opened up some document. He pressed the teacher button, and Jonas put in some words. Then we were in the teachers notes and stuff. Like their planning.

"Take a look?" he got out of his seat. I slid in it.

I scrolled to Mr. Solomon's lesson plan for tomorrow. I clicked on it and what popped up made my heart stop beating for a second.

'Ms. Morgan you are not allowed to see this. You may see some things you do not like.'

I was so shocked to see it I didn't even see Jonas try to hack it. "It's protected real good. Not worth the time," he told me. I nodded. "Want to see people's grades?" I smiled I moved back to my chair so that he could work his magic. Suddenly we had a master list up.

"Click on mine," I told him. He scrolled down to 'M' and looked for my name. He found it and opened it.

**Art - A**

**Chemistry - A**

**English - A**

**Geometry- A+**

**History - B+**

**Spanish IV - A+**

**Wood shop - A**

My first 2 days and I already have my grades changed. And why the heck do I have a B+?! I think that's the lowest grade I've ever gotten. Yeah, yeah, I know. Nerd. But still, I like to have my options open. But it's only been 2 days!

"We don't have any classes together," Jonas told me.

"Well yeah, I kinda figured that out when I didn't see you in any of my classes yesterday."

"Anyone else?" he asked. I looked up.

"Tina Walters." She always had the worst grades.

**Algebra I - C**

**Computer art - C+**

**English - B+**

**French - D**

**Photography - A+**

**Phy. Ed. - A**

**Physical Science - B-**

Wow. It takes a genius to STILL be in physical science. That was what you normally take freshman year!! Tina also had this amazing speed. I don't know how, but she was really fast. And photography? That's like half newspaper!

"Zachary Goode," I said. He pulled it up.

**Adv. Geometry - A**

**Chemistry - A-**

**English - A+**

**History - A**

**Into to drawing - A**

**Latin - A+**

**Woodshop - A+**

No. Way. He had better grades than me. NOT GOOD. I would have to improve my grades in Mr. Solomon's class. Not only that, he had more advanced classes than me!

"Kyle Heag." Let's see how the scholarship student is doing.

**Adv. Geometry - A+**

**Adv. English - A+**

**Chemistry - A**

**Latin - A+**

**Phy. Ed. - A+**

**Study Hall - (no grade)**

**World History - A**

Wow. Our scholarship student is smart.

~*~*~*~

We spent the rest of the time, looking at other people's grades. I know you're not supposed to, but what can you say when you got a genius hacker on your side?

"Hey, can we hack onto the school newspaper?" I asked Jonas.

"How did you know we have a paper?" he asked me as he clicked and typed. "Newspaper for September 18, Friday." I looked at the paper Tina had written up. There wasn't anything about me. I grinned. She couldn't put me in, it would just give me more publicity, which she didn't want. I looked at her main article. It was something about a dance. Huh, that could be next weeks main. I put the picture of Tina in and started typing.

~*~*~*~

I finished up with the essay and Jonas and I left. I heard something in the gym so I said I had forgotten something and for him to go on without me. I ran back to the gym and peeked through the window to see who was messing around.

It was Kyle. I sighed. This boy was asking for trouble. I opened the door. He immediately stopped.

"Hey, Kyle!" I said with a smile. He untensed.

"Don't do that. I thought I got caught!" he said back. I just grinned.

"You do this often?" I asked him. He was running up and down the court, doing lay-ups and 3 point shots and stuff. I think that's what you called them at least…

"Yeah, I usually shoot every morning," he yelled back to me. I saw him do a perfect half court shot. Amazing.

"Is that why you fainted this morning?" I asked him. He stopped and looked back at me.

"Maybe." With that he went back to shooting. I left, Jonas was waiting for me.

I walked out of the building into the main lot. There was only one car left which I was assuming was Jonas's.

"Cammie! Over here!" I saw Jonas out of his car widow waving his hands around like a maniac.

Huh, yeah. That's Jonas alright. I walked over and he smiled and pointed to the backseat. I was used to sitting back there so it didn't really bother me.

"Hi, honey. You must be Cammie," I'm assuming his mom said. "I'm Jonas's mom." That answers that question."Where do you live?"

"Uh, Abercrombie Dr. I live on the right just a few more blocks down."

"You know you say 'uh' a lot," Jonas told me. I stuck out my tongue at him. "Hey, you live by Zach."

"Is that so?" I said under my breath. We pulled into the drive way and I got out.

"Hey thanks!" I yelled at them waving as I entered the house. They waved back and drove out.

"Hey, squirt," Grant said, ruffling my hair coming down the stairs. Sometimes I hate the height difference between Grant and I. I ran into my room and flopped on my bed. Ugh, what a tiring day. I looked out the window to the woods. It was so peaceful.

I got up and locked my door, then went and unzipped my backpack and dumped the contents onto my bed.

54 notes. 54.

I opened one up.

'Hey, how's your day?

- G'

I rolled my eyes. Please say that these aren't all from Grant. I put the note behind me to signify I had read it. I opened the next one.

'Mad basketball skillz. Try out!

Sophie. :)'

Oh I had forgotten about the whole basketball thing. Gosh I hope they weren't all like this too. Well I guess it's better than love notes. I threw it behind me.

'Girl got game! You should definitely try out for the basketball team. You would totally make it. - Maggie'

'Hello? Cammie? Response?'

What the heck? Response to what? I put it next to me thinking that it was a continuation of something.

'I'll get you back next time. -Z' That made me roll my eyes.

'Nice basketball skills. Maybe we can do a little 1-on-1 sometime. - Kyle'

'You know my locker, you could give me a note back you know. - G' I rolled my eyes. I live with him. I should not have to keep him updated during school.

'You are ssssssooooooooo sexy. Give me a call. 983-481-1187.' I crumbled that one right away.

'Hey we're on for tonight right? Jonas' I looked at the hand writing between this on and that one before. Yep. Same hand writing. I threw the two behind me.

The other notes were all 'join the basketball team' or 'Cammie I need a note back' or 'I like you and I'm not going to tell you who I am' but there was this really weird one. Well, it was a love note, but the person typed it up for some reason…

'Cammie, I think I really like you. You're so different and energetic. You make my head spin at times. But I can't figure you out. You're smart, kind, but then sometimes you're stubborn and cheap and your smile makes me melt all inside. I just want you to know you're special.'

Okay???? That was a different one. It was typed up so I couldn't identify the hand writing (I assume) and there was no name. I kept it just in case there was another one.

I took all the other notes and crumbled them up into balls. I placed my little trash bucket in the corner of the room. I went back to my bed and started shooting baskets.

Only a few dropped. That's when I realized that I might actually have a shot at basketball.

I shook off the thought. I had a horrible time with basketball before. I don't think I wanted to try it again.

I heard a ton of noise by Zach's house. I looked over and Zach and his posse were playing around in his backyard. Tina, Zach, Courtney, Eva, Kim, Johnathan, Sam, Jared, Alex, Joe, and Ashlee were all over there, talking or playing a mini game of basketball.

I quickly shut my curtain. I really didn't want everyone to know I lived right next door to him. I flopped down on the bed. I might as well start unpacking.

Suddenly my door came open.

"Hey! I locked that," I complained. Grant held up a card of some sort.

"Works every time," he said with a grin.

"What do you want?"

"Mom told me to tell you to start unpacking so get to it." He shut my door. I groaned. My room was a mess from looking for my bed sheets yesterday.

This was going to be a while.

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Thanks for reviewing! Did this answer some of your questions? : )


	5. unpacking

Hey! On my profile thingy I posted a link that shows you what I think the house looks like, take a look if you want. Ignore everything that pops up, I only made the site so that you guys could see what I pictured the house to be. Let me know if you want me to post some of the characters. I drew them at 2 in the morning so sorry for that if it looks funny. -.- anyways! To the story!

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Sighing I got off of my bed and grabbed the box closest to me and dumped the contents on my bed. Books.

I grabbed the first few and spun around to the shelf that was beside my bed… that wasn't there. Groaning I dropped the books back onto the bed and looked for my shelf. It was near the door. The thing separating my shelf from where it was supposed to be was boxes. I sighed. I stuffed everything that wasn't in a box, into a box or on my bed. I opened the door to the balcony and started to move all of the boxes out. Finally all the boxes were out of my room and it looked… somewhat clean. Except for the fact my bed was piled high with a mess.

I opened the drapes a little. It was opened a little sideways on the opposite side of my bed. Just the little sunshine still made a huge difference in my room. I went over to my shelves and moved them into place. They weren't that heavy when they didn't have stuff in them, but I think that's the fact with anything. After I put the shelves in place, or rather where I wanted them, I went back out to get my boxes.

"It's Cammie!"

Startled I looked up. I saw Joe waving at me, I waved back slowly, making it look as if I didn't know him, because I wasn't supposed to know him. If it weren't for Jonas and him showing me everyone's picture and stuff, I don't think I would know as many people as I did.

I noticed that Zach's house was almost identical to mine, except it was just flipped. His triangle room also had a balcony. The only difference was that his triangular room was all glass. He was able to look out any way he wanted. Joe came out onto the balcony and came all the way to the very end.

"I'm Joe!" he stuck out his hand. What was with people in this town with shaking hands. Again, I awkwardly shook his hand.

"Cammie," I said, putting on a small smile.

"Oh, yeah I know. You got me out in basketball today." He was in the game? Come to think of it there was a Joe…

"Do you want to come over?" he asked me. Huh? He had to be joking. Tina would go absolutely crazy.

"Uh, no. I gotta unpack anyways," I told him. Might as well save them from Tina's wrath.

I grabbed some boxes and turned around when I heard a thump. I looked back to see him jump on to my balcony.

"You know how dang-" I was about to scold him but he grabbed some boxes and said,

"I'll help you." Sighing I shook my head, I lead him into my room, we dropped the boxes and went back outside.

Sam and Alex had jumped over and Johnathan was in the process of jumping over.

"What are you guys doing?!" I demanded, obviously pissed off so many boys were hopping over onto my balcony.

"Helping, so we just take these boxes inside?" Alex asked already picking up boxes and walking inside. I didn't even need to pick up another box, they were all gone.

Where's Grant at times like _these_?!

The boxes were all inside my room and I made them all hop back over, but they still stayed on the balcony. They were being such a pain in the butt. Finally Tina had enough and shut the drapes on them. Startled they tried to get back in, but she locked the door. I took this chance to run back inside and lock the door.

I went over to my bed and started putting things away, I put all of the books back to their place on the bookshelf, and I folded the clothes into a pile. I wasn't allowed to go near my closet, Macey did all of that for me. Last time I went in there I tripped and fell, taking down clothes and the bars to hold them up with it. The outcome I had ripped more than half my clothes somehow and I broke the bar. Macey didn't like that so she banned me from my own closet. I don't know why I listened to the little twerp but I did.

Finally I could at least sit on my bed. I didn't know I had so much clothes! I ran downstairs to go get Mace.

"Mace! Clothes?" That's all I needed to say. She went bolting by me to my room. I ran up the stairs to see her putting my clothes away. I guess that was nice. I didn't need to worry about clothes. I gave her the boxes of clothes. After I did I noticed that more than half of the boxes were clothes. I wonder what Macey does with all these clothes!

I put all of my books away onto the shelves and then started on my pictures and stuff. I had a certain order for things. Neat freak, I know. I smiled as I went through some of the pictures. I placed all of my stuff down and finally everything was put away. Great way to spend a Thursday. Macey had left my room a while ago. I had no idea how she could unpack so quickly.

"Cammie~!" I heard Grant call me from downstairs. I opened my door and yelled down the stairs.

"What do you want, Grant?"

"Movie night, just wanted to let you know." Oh I had totally forgotten! My family had a night where we watched a movie together. It was like going to a movie theater, except there weren't other people.

"I'll be down in a second," I told him. I flipped off the lights and ran down the stairs. I ran down the hallway and slid into the darkened living room.

"What movie are we watching?" I asked as I flopped down next to Grant.

"Mr. & Mrs. Smith," Grant replied with a smile. With that mom pressed the play button and we watched the movie.

~*~*~*~

I went to bed right after the movie. Mace had already fallen asleep and Grant had to bring her up to her room. At least she didn't weigh a ton. I went in my room and crawled to bed, letting sleep take over me.

~*~*~*~

"CAMMIE GET YOUR ASS UP!" groggily I sat up slowly.

"Why are you so loud, Grant?" I asked in a slur.

"We have 20 minutes to get to school and you still need to eat!"

"Well what time is it?" I asked him, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"8!" I got up with a start. Why didn't my alarm go off?! I looked over. It was still unplugged. I quickly got up and threw on the clothes that were on my bed. Mace always left my clothes for the day out there. I threw it on, not even caring what it was. I ran down the stairs to find Mace waiting impatiently for me.

"We are going to be late because of you!" she growled at me. We've been late plenty of times because of Macey before.

"Let's take mom's car," I suggested. I mean, she could call in sick or something right?

"You're lucky, Cameron," I saw mom come out of the kitchen. "I'm going into work late today." It shouldn't really be difficult to drive us. I mean she was going to in the first place!

We all hustled out to the car and drove to school. It was like the first day all over except Macey didn't wait for us. She just walked her stuff right into the school. Sighing I got out and waved mom bye. Grant accompanied me to my locker and then left. It was the same old morning.

I opened my locker. Luckily I had no notes. I grabbed my notebook and headed off for English. I walked in and was the first one again. I sat down at my seat and waited for the rest of class to show up. Bex came running in shortly after.

"Cammie! Cammie, you've got to read this," she told me. She handed me the newspaper. Oh, I forgot. I had edited it. Of course it was going to be funny.

Before I could even look at my work some boys came in laughing.

"I LOVE~ BANANAS!" the boy shouted. Bex giggled. I looked questioningly at her.

"You need to read this!" she said. I don't remember putting anything in about bananas.

"Would you kill him in his bed?" the other boy snickered. Okay. Did not put that in. The whole class came in soon after. Then Tina came in.

Pissed off.

"What did you do, MORGAN!" she yelled at me. The teacher shot her a look. She huffed but quieted down.

"To be honest, Tina, I have no idea what anyone is talking about. I gotta say, when I find out who did this I'll compliment him," I replied. Everyone was staring at her and me.

"Don't lie. You've done this crap before," she told me. I shrugged. Okay, yeah, that one article about the teachers in a scandal got her in trouble…

"Yeah, I haven't even looked at the newspaper. No idea what anyone is talking about." She looked at me.

"I know you did this. I will get you to admit you did this too." With that she went huffing off to her seat.

Everyone laughed. I had this weird expression on my face. It was confused… I was confused! I grabbed the newspaper. On the front page it had a picture of 'HAMLET'.

_'Would you kill him in his bed?_

_Thrust a dagger through his head?_

_I would not, could not kill the king,_

_I could not do that evil thing._

_I would not wed this girl you see,_

_Now get her to a nunnery.'_

That was one of the weirdest intros I've ever read. Right after it, it said, 'Hamlet Dr. Seuss' way.

That was pretty weird…

"Good morning class!" Mr. Robinson greeted us. Class begun so I handed Bex back her newspaper. "Today we're learning about clauses," I zoned out right there. I had learned this at my old school. They taught a lot of different things. Like teaching us 14 different languages. I'm sure no one else had to do that. We learned how to diagram sentences (A/N: **I actually had to learn how to do that… 92 year old teacher…)** We did finishing school. That was a pain. We learned how to set the table, sit, and all that good stuff.

Finally we were done with class. He gave us some worksheet about clauses to do as homework. I went on to my regular classes doing what was necessary. For some reason I was super tired and all I wanted to do was go home and sleep. Suddenly I found myself getting shaken. I looked up. Bex was above me.

"Hey, lunch," she told me with a grin. I don't know what it is with this Spanish class. I already knew everything, but I was still able to stay awake in other classes that I knew everything in.

I lazily got up and headed out the door. We walked down the hall. There were a lot of people scurrying around considering lunch had already begun.

I stuffed my stuff in my locker and walked to lunch with Bex. I parted with her and walked over to my family. They were waiting for me. I sat down and buried my head in my arms.

"Someone's tired." I heard Grant teasing me.

"The movie last night is kicking my butt," I lied.

"Liar." Yep. My family knew me well all right.

I dosed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. This was going to be a long school day.

Suddenly I was being shaken.

"Huh, wha?" I groggily asked. I slowly sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

"Good morning, sleepy head," an oddly familiar voice said. I looked up at the voice. Oh, it was Kyle.

IT WAS KYLE?!?!

"What's up?" I asked him. Why hadn't Grant killed him yet?

"I didn't know you skipped class," he told me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. That was confusing. I never skipped. That wasn't a good thing to do.

"Uh, then you're really late," he told me. What was he talking about??

"I'm confused," I said. He chuckled.

"Obviously. You do know that everyone is gone?" I looked around. No one was in the lunch room. Only Kyle and me.

"Where'd everyone go?" I asked. He laughed.

"You are so slow! Lunch is over! Classes have already begun!" I gaped. I did not skip class. Why hadn't my siblings woken me up?!?!

"Well why aren't you in class then?!" I demanded. Mr. Smarty Pants wasn't at class.

"Study hall," he told me. So that makes it alright to skip?! I sighed.

"Fake it," he told me. I looked at him confused. Fake what?

"Fake fainting or something. I'll help you," he went on. He grabbed me and picked me up bridal style.

"What do you think you're doing!" I screeched.

"Just pretend you're unconscious. I'll bring you to the nurse," he said, and then started carrying me out of the lunch room and to the nurse's office. I sighed. I shut my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Again someone was shaking me. I slowly opened my eyes. How many times was I going to be awaken?! It was Grant.

"Thank God you opened your eyes," he said. He looked greatly relieved.

"Huh? Ow," I clutched my head as a sharp pain raced through it.

"You've been unconscious for a while," he told me. Yeah, I thought. More like sleeping.

"Oh, ow," I said clutching my head. It hurt really bad.

"Lay down, sis. Mom's coming," he told me. Wait, why is mom coming?

"Why is mom coming?" I managed to get out.

"School's over."

School was over?!

~*~*~*~

I got shot gun so I could lay back. Grant and mom were pounding me with questions, to make sure I was alright.

Just shows you how much I skip class.

As soon as we got home I wobbled out of the car, my legs weren't used to being used. Grant caught me and gave me a piggy back to my room. He set me on the bed and turned off my lights. I feel asleep almost instantly.

I woke up to someone pounding on my door. Slowly I sat up. I was finally getting used to not jerking up. I slowly walked to the tapping. It was coming from my balcony door.

"Hello?"I hazily asked. The voice chuckled.

"Nice to meet you too, Gallagher Girl."

"Zach? Oh, Zach. What's up?" I asked him, yawning after almost every word.

"So you skipped class," he started.

"No, I guess I fainted or something," I cut him off. I was going to stick with my cover story, since that's what 'supposedly' happened.

"Yeah, right. Here," he handed me some pieces of paper.

"What's this?"

"I made copies of the homework for you," he told me. Wow. He could be really sweet sometimes.

"Thanks," I said, giving him a small smile. He just did that short nod and jumped onto his balcony. Then I saw a little boy come running in.

"Zach!" the kid yelled.

"Hey, what's up?" Zach asked the little boy.

"I need help with my homework." the little boy told him. "Who's that?" he asked pointing at me.

"That's our new neighbor Cammie," Zach told him. The little boy waved but then dragged Zach away.

I shut the door and turned on my light. I had some homework to do.

I hurried and did all of my homework, completing it all under an hour. They handed out pretty simple stuff at this school.

My stomach growled as I put the papers in my bag. I got up and ran down the stairs into the kitchen.

"How you feel?" Grant asked as soon as I got in.

"Hungry," I mumbled out.

"I'll make you something. What you want?" he asked me.

"Surprise me. Just make me hot chocolate first," I said. I was feeling cold, even in sweats and a sweatshirt. When I woke up I was changed into more comfortable clothes, such as Grant's worn out sweats and stuff. At a point it was gross, but it was comfortable so I guess that made up for the grossness.

I was served my hot chocolate right away. I dozed off and didn't even notice Grant make a cake. Yeah, yeah. It's stupid and embarrassing for him, but he is an amazing cook. I can't name a single person who can whip up a better cake than him.

"Here you go, Princess," he said as he placed a slice of cake in front of me. He took my mug and refilled it with more hot chocolate. I loved my brother when he pampered me. He was so nice. Sometimes he could be so overprotective though. This side of him made up for that over protectiveness.

"How's your head?" he asked.

"I have a small headache but nothing serious," I replied. He stood up and ruffled my hair. Then he left.

I sat at the kitchen table by myself, dozing off and taking sips from my hot chocolate occasionally. Suddenly I heard another knock. I looked up and saw Zach smiling though the glass. He had another letter in his hand. I got up slowly and trudged over towards him.

"Letter delivery for Mr. Chris Morgan," he said in a cheery voice.

"Thanks, Zach. I'll give it to him," I told him. When I looked up he looked worried. "What's wrong?" I asked. Shortly after I sneezed.

"Do you feel okay?" he asked. I gave him my 'huh?' face. "You look pale." with that he put his hand up to my forehead. "You feel hot. You should go lie down," he told me.

"I'll do that," I said. I shut the door. I saw him still watching me but I ignored it.

I went into the work room and handed dad his letter.

"Cammie, you don't look so well," he told me as I was about to leave.

"So I've been told," I said, "I'm going to bed anyways."

I went to bed early. It was only 6. This time, no one disturbed my sleep.


	6. the over protective brother

Did those pictures even work? Hm… well anyways I posted pics of the uniform. I'm not really good at explaining things… So take a look again if it doesn't make any sense!

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I woke up after a good sleep. Hm. I wonder what's for dinner. I had a coughing fit. Augh, my throat hurt like crap! Maybe food wouldn't even go down... I looked over at where my alarm was supposed to be, then scolded myself for not fixing it. But the 11:24 that shone back at me surprised me. I did a double take. When did my alarm go back up? I yawned. It was late. I would have to go get a midnight snack.

I opened my door and headed down the stairs. Bright lights shone in through the glass pieces all over our door. Wasn't it a little late for it to be so bright? I walked right into the kitchen.

"Morning sleepy head," Grant said. I sneezed. What was he talking about?

"Why are you up this late?" I asked him as I went to the fridge.

"What are you talking about? Its almost noon." That's when everything started clicking. Why it was bright out, why he was up, it all just made sense. I had a coughing fit again.

"You should go back to bed," he told me.

"Why?" I croaked out.

"You're obviously sick." Well I don't normally get sick so it was kind of a duh moment for me. "I'll make something for you."

"Oh, I'll just go wait in my bed then," I said giving in. I walked up the stairs. While I was walking my body felt surprisingly heavy. I barely made it up the stairs and I was sweating like crazy. I fell down onto my bed. I was so exhausted. My stomach growling made me stay up. All I wanted right now was to sleep.

Grant came in with a tray. "You look like shit," he honestly told me. I tried to glare at him, but it just wasn't working. He set the tray down on the shelf beside me, out of my reach and left. That idiot. How did he expect me to eat when I couldn't even reach the tray! Shortly after he returned with Mace and a bowl and something in a mini box.

He came over and had Mace wipe my down face for me. Just wiping away the sweat made my face feel so much cooler. He opened up the box and took something out and ripped it. Oh, it was one of those ice pack things that stick to you. He took one out and stuck it on my forehead.

"Thanks, Grant. Thanks Mace," I managed to get out. He helped me up so I could sit and eat the soup he made for me. Chicken noodle soup. My favorite. I finished and he took the tray.

"You go to sleep, you hear?" he told me. I was already under the covers so I don't think he really needed to say that. He flipped off the lights for me and I drifted off to sleep.

I heard Mace tell Grant that I looked like shit. Not like I haven't heard that one today.

But again I was awoken. Only this time it wasn't a knock or someone yelling at me. It was a loud bang. I opened my eyes. It was so dark I couldn't see anything. I looked over at my alarm clock. 1:06 **(ha ha ha. That's what time it is right now as I'm writing!)**. I peeked out my curtains to see darkness and water drops all over the glass. It must've been night. I opened the curtains a little farther so I could watch the storm. It was lighter out there. I saw all the trees, a little ways back. The branches were swaying back and forth from the wind and the clouds lit the sky. The trees were a dark green, it looked so… dark. The sky was lighter, light and dark shades of purple lighting up the sky with bolts of white. The lightening struck every 8 minutes or so. I watched the storm and drifted off to sleep.

~*~*~*~

'Tap, tap' I woke up to the annoying sound of someone knocking. I just shoved one of my pillows over my head and tried to sleep. Then I head my door open.

"Gallagher Girl?" Did he not see I was trying to sleep?!?! Wait, why was he even barging through my door?!?!

"I know you're awake." I could hear the grin of his face.

Defeated, I took the pillow off. "What do you want, Zach?" I croaked. My voice was getting worse. He tossed me something. I grabbed it and looked at it. A white board? I looked at him questioningly.

"You write on it. Your voice is bad so just write to me." I rolled my eyes. Then wrote

'Why are you here'

"Hadn't seen you since early Friday," he replied.

'Well what day is it?'

"Late Sunday." I looked at my clock. Yeah, it was late. It was 10:19 **(again the time I'm writing at! :))**.

'oh wow.'

"You ready for school tomorrow?"

'I'm as ready as I'll ever be.'

"You excited for your uniform?"

'WHAT UNIFORM?!?!?!'

"Oh, I forgot you weren't there on Friday. I remember now though. You skipped school."

'DID NOT SKIP'

"Ah, you keep telling yourself that. Anyways, our school has uniform." Why would I not know about this? Oh yeah, cause Macey does everything with my clothes. "The first week is not, but then everything after is uniform unless it's like spirit week or something." By now Zach was sitting on my bed and we were having a normal conversation. Like an actual normal talk! No smirks, no witty comments, just talking! Too bad we were interrupted…

"Cammie~!" Zach and I froze. Grant stood in the doorway.

"It's not what it looks like."

"It better not be what it looks like."

Grant looked furious.

He walked over by us and he threw a punch at Zach.

"Grant!" I shrieked, or at least tried to. I looked over at Zach who was laying on the floor…

Unconscious.

~*~*~*~

I sighed as I put ice on the bruise that was forming from Grant's punch. We were in his room because Grant didn't want him waking up in my bed.

"You could have been a little easier on the poor kid," I told Grant. He always did this. If a guy even talked to me we would stand up in fists.

"Yeah? Well he shouldn't of been in your room." he did have a point there… "You're lucky mom and dad aren't home. Otherwise this thing would have been a whole lot worse." he had another point there….

Finally Zach started coming around. He groaned and opened his eyes.

"Zach? Zach are you okay?" he wasn't answering my questions.

Suddenly he jerked upright and put his arms around me.

"I love you, Cammie."

This was not going to end well.

"Zach, snap out of it," I scolded him. "You're dating Tina remember?"

"That slut? She was going to break up with me in a month anyways. I'll call her later." This was not taking a good turn. Grant was in the room! Did he not see?! He put his head on my shoulder.

"Goode, I think it's best if you leave this house_** NOW**_," Grant threatened. I could tell he was having a hard time controlling his anger. I was freaking out for Zach and he was acting as if everything was okay.

"Zach! You need to leave." I told him. He made no intention of leaving. "Zach?"

I moved his head. He was sleeping.

"Ugh, Grant. He fell asleep," I told Grant. Probably not the smartest thing I've said in front of Grant.

"HE WHAT?" he yelled. I cringed for Zach. He was in for it now. I set him down on Grant's bed and walked back to mine. I did not want to see what Grant was going to do. I took my IPod and stuck the buds in my ears and turned it on. I listened to the veronicas 4ever because that's the song it was on. I drifted off to sleep sometime during the song.

~*~*~*~

I woke up starving. I hadn't eaten much. I looked at my clock. 6:15. I peeked out my curtains to see if it were morning or not. It was getting bright out. Huh, Monday morning? I looked at the edge of my bed. As usual Macey had my clothes laid out for me. I threw on the uniform shirt. It was a plain white shirt with a collar. I put on the vest that went with it. It was a light gray long sleeve sweater with 2 white stripes high on the left side. I slipped on my skirt - cream colored. Ugh, can't girls wear pants? I put it on anyways. I used to wear uniform at my old school so I was used to the whole uniform thing. At least everyone isn't looking at what you wear now, I mentally thought.

I got up and went down stairs and into the kitchen.

"Why are you up?" I heard Mace demand. I looked over. She was sitting on the chair by the table in her pajamas. She had her coffee mug and a magazine in hand she was reading it but she still noticed me.

"Uh, woke up. Can't sleep." She looked at me.

"Turn." I spun around.

"You look darling. Now take it off and go back to bed."

"What?"

"Go get some sleep. You've got a big day and you're sick." I sighed. Grant came trudging in. He looked at me and did a double take.

"Cammie?!" I rolled my eyes. "You're going to school in _that_?!?!"

"Yeah, Grant. I believe they have things called uniforms." Ugh. I know I don't look good in uniforms but I didn't need _Grant_ to tell me that.

"No, I mean, ugh. Macey, isn't that skirt a little _short_?" Ahh. It was the shortness that was bugging him. ONCE AGAIN HE IS TOO OVER PROTECTIVE!!!

"Looks fine to me. I even think it may be a little lengthy," she trailed off looking at my skirt. "Turn," she commanded me again. I did. "Yep, looks good to me," she told Grant. He was just at her side looking at her like she was crazy.

"Can we un-hem it or something?" he asked Mace. She gave him a glare.

"Grant, it looks fine. Quit being such an over protective brother," she snapped.

"Don't get me started on your clothes, Macey. You went wrong a long time ago. I don't want Cammie following your example." What, was I the younger sister in this family?!

"What's wrong with my clothes?! You're just being way to over protective!" I sighed and walked to my room. I put my stuff together and walked onto the balcony to enjoy the air.

Finally I heard my siblings quit quarreling so I went back inside. I saw why they quit. Mom and dad were up. They ran up the stairs and got ready for school. I threw my backpack down by the entrance and went into the kitchen to eat breakfast with my family for once.

We had breakfast and because I was up early mom was able to drive us to school, us being like 30 minutes early.

No one was there.

Like teachers janitors, nothing.

I laughed. "We're early for once," I joked. Grant at least appreciated my humor.

We walked around the school to the football/soccer/track/lacrosse/whatever else is played on turf place. No one was here.

"Grant, race me?" I asked as we neared the fence.

"No way are you hopping a fence in a skirt!" Macey told me. I rolled my eyes. I took a running start and started climbing anyways. Macey saw this and ran after me, trying to get me down. Too late. I jumped the fence and turned around to smirk at her. Then Grant gave Macey a lift.

"Wait, what! Grant! Stop it." He pushed her up the fence so that she was more than halfway. All she had to do was swing her legs and jump."Ugh, fine," she huffed. She jumped over the fence. Grant followed right after.

"So how about that race, bro?" I questioned him. I was in the mood to run. No idea why.

"First one around the track gets what?" he asked. Hmmm, putting a reward would only make it more interesting.

"I'll buy your tux for homecoming," I told him. It was an inside joke. He never went to homecoming.

"I'll buy you a dress." I rolled my eyes. Like I would ever go to homecoming.

Then it hit me. He was going to buy clothes for homecoming. WE WERE GOING?!?!

"Macey, can tell us who wins," Grant said. Mace looked like she wasn't going to.

"Please, Mace?" I begged her. She gave in. I have my ways of persuading I guess.

"Ready, Set, GO!" With that Grant and I took off, me licking at his heels.

"Someone's going to buy me a tux at this rate," he called back to me. I pumped my hands and sprinted as fast as I could. There was no way I wanted to buy him a tux!! Finally I broke even with him. I'd given him the inside so he had an edge. We went side by side for a while, but then he pulled back ahead. I ran as fast as I could, and we went even again. Instead of being nice I cut him off.

"HEY!" he yelled. Not my fault is it now. You can cut. I sprinted, now Grant at my heels. Only 4 feet more… I heard Macey cheering for me. I grinned. She was mad at Grant and I knew it. Suddenly I caught movement on my right. Grant came even. We sprinted as fast as we could, final second I kind of bumped him.

Risk it for the biscuit.

"Hey, that's cheating," he called as we went over the finish line. "I should win because of penalty," he claimed.

"Cammie wins," Mace said looking at her nails to see if they weren't broken.

"See, Mace agrees with me," I told Grant.

"How much are dresses anyways?" Grant asked.

"The one I was looking at for Cammie was $1,000," Mace replied. Grant and I gaped at her. 1,000 DOLLARS?!?!

"What are you planning on buying?!" Grant demanded. This was only prom! It wasn't like my last year here or anything.

"Oh, it was really pretty. Cammie would like it," she said winking at me. I was still in shock about the money. Does she normally buy such expensive clothes for me?!

We heard some yelling over by the school. There were a ton of kids hanging out.

"When did they all get here?" I asked. I mean we only went around twice. That should be only about two minutes.

"You guys were looking at me with your mouths open for a solid 5 minutes," she said. That was sarcasm. It had to be.

"Time."

"8:12," Grant replied.

We had spent 22 minutes up already?! How?! Sighing we jumped the fence again. We walked into the school. I don't know why but today everyone was staring at me.

"Told you it was inappropriate," Grant muttered at me. I shot him a look.

"May be they just like me," I mumbled back. But it was very curious. It was as if they were waiting for me.

I got to my locker and opened it. Notes fell out. I bent down to pick them up but someone was already helping me.

"Thanks," I said. I looked and it was the boy whose locker was right beside mine. It was that Tyler Dhine kid.

"No problem," he said getting red. What was it with people today? His friend snickered.

"He was right," his friend told him. I am SO CONFUSED.

I grabbed my books and walked to class. I heard a lot of wolf whistles. What was with this school today, those sexist pigs!

I went in the classroom and Bex was waiting for me.

"Cammie, you'll never believe it," she said. I looked at her confused. What was it with everyone today?

"Zach has been telling everyone you look really hot and they should watch out for you!" I paled.

This was going to end very badly for a boy named Zach.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ha ha ha. My plans got cancelled so I got more time to write! :) Is it just me or are the chapters getting shorter? Sorry if they are. I'll write a long one next. Please review!


	7. running

"He likes you! I knew it!" Bex kept on going on. I felt myself get paler and paler.

I think I fainted.

I know I fainted because I woke up in the nurse's office.

"Hello dear. How are you feeling?" I looked up to see the nurse looking at me.

"Wha- Wait, I'm so confused. Ow!" I clutched my head. I had no idea why I was here. My head hurt from thinking so much about everything. Well I figured out quick enough I fainted.

"What happened?" I asked.

"A boy brought you in here saying you fainted," she told me slowly. Probably to make sure I comprehended. I nodded my head. "We got your brother to ask him a few things but he told us to get you home. Are you sick, honey?"

"Yeahhhhh, but not super sick," I responded. I didn't want to miss today. I just didn't.

"How often do you get sick? Do you think it's serious? Do you want us to do what your brother said? Do you want to lie down? Do you want us to call your parents?" she asked. I was just sick of all of these questions. I was sick of Grant treating me like I was still a little kid. I was sick of Zach and his stupid moves. I was sick of Tina always blaming me (not that she shouldn't…). I was sick of this school already. I was sick of being cooped up in buildings all day. I just wanted to get away - to be free.

I sprinted for the door.

"HEY! Come back here!" the lady yelled at me. I just wanted to get out of here. I ran down the hall and out of the doors. I know I wasn't supposed to leave the school, but I did anyways. I ran over to the dome. We called the turf stuff that because we put up a dome for winter I guess.

I jumped the fence. No one was around. I went running out to the middle of the field and just stood there catching my breath. Then I walked over to the track part and just ran. And ran. And ran.

I wanted to get away from Zach.

I wanted to get away from Grant.

I wanted to get away from school.

I wanted to just get away from everything.

"You're going to wreck your body running like that," I heard a voice yell to me.

I stopped and looked at where I heard the voice. There Kyle sat on the bleachers. My legs failed me and I collapsed on the rubber; sitting and panting.

He walked down the bleachers and onto the field. He walked over to me.

"What's wrong, Morgan?" he asked me. He squat down so that we were almost level.

"You… ever feel… like you want to… get away?" I panted.

"Tons of times," he replied. I looked at him.

"So what.. do you... do?" I asked him.

"I run." Then it made sense, why he was in the nurse's office, about his running…

We had about a 5 minute silence.

"What do you run from?" I asked him.

"A lot of stuff," he said dazing off into the distance. "You should get some fluids in you," he said tossing me a gatorade. I looked at him questioningly. "I saw you running and I decided you would need it. Now drink," he commanded me. I tried opening it, but my whole body was shaking. Kyle grabbed it and opened it. He gave it back to me.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

"You've been running for a whole hour you know," he told me. A whole hour? Wow. "So what's so bad that you skipped school?" he asked me. Oh. Right. I said I never skipped class. And well, I never did.

This was the first time.

"Everything I guess," I replied. Why did I trust him enough to tell him that?!

We sat in silence.

"Do you want me to sit with you at lunch? Just to make sure you get to class?" he asked me.

I laughed. "Most appreciated."

We sat silently.

"The nurse is going to call the cops if we don't go back pretty soon," he told me. Oh, yeah it was pretty odd I hadn't seen any cop cars yet. I've been missing for an hour? They would've called the cops by then.

"I was walking into the nurse's office to sleep, but then you came running out. I don't think you even noticed me. I went into the room and told the nurse if we weren't back in a hour and a half to call the cops then. I couldn't believe she actually trusted me, but then again I was always coming into the office," he explained himself.

I just sat there trembling and drinking my gatorade.

"Can you walk?" he asked me. I slowly got up, with some help from him. We walked back to the main building and went to the nurse's office. I got scolded while Kyle just stood in the doorway. He yawned. I lay in the nurse's office bed thing for the rest of the morning. Kyle slept on the one next to me. Finally the lunch bell went off. Kyle sat up and yawned. It was like automatic or something. He looked over at me.

"Oh, hey, you're still here," he said.

"Yeah, and you skip class to sleep?" I asked him.

"You get 10 missed classes a trimester," he tried to reason. I just couldn't see it. I shook my head and chuckled.

"How do you get such good grades?" I asked under my breath.

"What you say?" he asked.

"Nothing," I replied.

"You ready for some lunch?" he asked me.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

~*~*~*~

We walked in the lunch room late. Everyone stared at us. He waved at everyone. I rolled my eyes. I led the way over to my table, Kyle following me yawning a bunch. I sat down, Grant staring at me like I was crazy bringing a boy to the table. Mace looked excited, like he could be my first boyfriend. I forgot Mace hadn't seen the whole Zach episode…

"What's up with him?" Grant asked.

"Well I need _someone_ to wake me up," I replied yawning. Yawning is so… what's the word. Easily transferred? No, there was a single word. Forget it. I laid my head in my arms and closed my eyes. I heard Kyle take the one next to me.

"My name is Macey," I heard Mace cheerily say. I drifted off to sleep before I could hear anything else she was going to go off about.

I was shaken awake.

"Morgan, Jesus woman. Wake up!" Finally I started moving up. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"5 minutes 'til class!" he exclaimed.

"Why are you so loud?" I asked him.

"You have no idea how hard it is too wake you up," he explained. I got up and he walked with me to my locker. I saw a lot of boys get red. God. What was I? A goddess?

I opened it up. It was overflowing with notes.

"Nice," Kyle grinned. You know he could be kind of cute if he smiled more- WHAT THE HELL AM I SAYING?! I rolled my eyes and threw them all in a bucket. I grabbed my books. For some reason I wasn't in a hurry. I knew I wouldn't be able to get in if I didn't hurry but I just didn't feel like moving fast. I got to class in time.

"Nice of you to join us, Ms. Morgan," Mr. Solomon told me as I walked through the door.

Ack, there he was smiling at me! Sighing I went to go sit by Zach, seeing that all the other seats were taken.

"Missed you this morning," he told me. I rolled my eyes.

"So what's with Kyle?" he asked me. I looked at him. He looked genuinely interested. I smirked inside… maybe I could get him a little jealous… No, I don't want Kyle getting in a fight. Maybe later…

"He's my friend," I replied. 'He's always there unlike you. He doesn't make witty remarks like you.'

"He's a drop out," Zach responded smirking. I glared at him, then turned my attention to Mr. Solomon for the rest of class. Or at least tried. Suddenly a note was flipped on my desk.

'So what sports are you in?'

'None'

'Hey! I'm in football…'

'Are you suggesting something?'

'Yeah, maybe I could take you out to dinner sometime.' I threw the note back at him without replying. He could probably get any girl in this school. I mean they were all swooning at the sight of him. But I wouldn't give in so easily. He threw the note back at me. I looked at him. He motioned me to open it.

'Can I have your number?'

~*~*~*~

"I think it's cute," Bex told me as we walked to my locker.

"Bex, I don't think so. I don't want to be one of his pawns," I replied. What was I saying?

"What are you saying?" Bex asked.

"I have no idea," I replied. "I don't want to be used to help get him more publicity."

"Oh, don't worry. He already has enough. He broke up with Tina in front of the whole lunch room before you came in," Bex told me. I groaned. Oh great. So now Tina would be out for me too.

"Great," I moaned. Suddenly I was tapped on the back of the head with books.

"Hey!"

"Howdy do," Kyle replied. I spun around to see Kyle holding some books of some sort.

"So you're going to class now?" I asked him.

"Latin is actually okay, and I have Phy. Ed. afterwards so it's not a bad ending half." I shrugged. Well if he's going to class. "Catch you later, Morgan!" he walked off to class.

"Who. Was. That," Bex demanded.

"That. Was. Kyle," I said mimicking her. She rolled her eyes and giggled.

"Is this why you haven't taken Zach up?" she asked.

"Nope. No way I'm going to go with Zach in a million years."

"Aw come on, Gallagher Girl. Give me a chance."I spun around to see Zach standing there.

"When did you get here?" I grabbed a pencil. You got to love wood shop. Only need one item. I shut my locker and started walking towards the shop.

"Give me one chance. That's all I'm asking. One," he said.

"Zach. Give me a break. Ask me later," I told him. I didn't want to hear him beg me right now.

I did what I could do best then - I blended in. I have no idea why I could, but when I didn't want to be seen, I could disappear.

I walked down the halls to woodshop and finally entered the class. Starting today we were actually going to make something. I went and sat at one of the front tables. Usually no one sits there, or by me. But today all the tables were being in use.

As I neared the front I saw who was sitting at my table. It was Joe and Tyler Dhine.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" I asked them.

"We're in the same class with you, Cammie. Get with the program," Joe laughed. Wow, didn't even notice them.

Mr. Woods, our teacher came in. "We are making a basket today," he announced. He showed us a replica of a little hand basket, like ones you would put flowers in or something.

"Wow, what am I supposed to do with that girly thing?" Tyler Dhine asked Joe. You know what. I don't care if everyone calls him Tyler Dhine. He's just going to be Dhine to me.

"I don't know; give it to your mom?" Joe suggested.

"Well, you could burn it," Dhine added. I rolled my eyes. Boys.

He gave us the materials and everything. It seemed easy enough, wood, nails, and a hammer. He then handed out more wood. Great, we got to cut out our handles and outer ends. A pattern went around the tables. I traced it and got some goggles then went to a jig-saw and started cutting out the pieces.

I went back to my table and started nailing the pieces in place. I finally got the basket part done. It was two chunks of wood at the ends, and smaller strips outlining the outside. Then Mr. Woods took my handle. Uh… I kind of needed that.

I watched him go over to some machine with my handle. Then he put on his glasses and started rubbing my handle against the machine. He finished and came back over and gave it to me. It was all smooth now and nice. The edges were all rounded.

"Thanks." he just nodded. I nailed the handle to the side strips that ran up the sides. Then I nailed the handle part to the body. And wala. I had a basket. Since we were doing the finishing and crap tomorrow, I put my basket on the shelf and watched Joe and Dhine struggle with their baskets. They were hitting the nails too forcefully for it to work properly and the nails were bending. It wasn't exactly their fault. I mean if the teacher would've given us some _real_ nails it would have been a lot easier to make. I giggled as I heard people cuss.

"Want some help?" I asked them. They looked up, realizing I was done.

"How? When?" I saw confusion all over Joe's face it was funny.

"Don't hit the nails so hard, take your time," I instructed them. Soon enough, everyone was around my table asking me for help. Was it they really needed it or they just wanted to say they talked to me? Because listening to everyone, it sounds like I'm an amazing person who if knows your name gets you popular. I had no idea.

So honestly, because I'm nice, I tried to get everyone's names right. Just trying to be nice.

Soon enough class was over, and I only had one more class to go - science.

The science teacher, Mr. Stock, was funny.

Many times we would get behind because class goes off in a weird direction. Sometime we were talking about the baseball team, then we got on to those weird looking trolls. I don't know how we got sports and dolls mixed, but it managed to happen.

This ended up a not-so-bad day.

~*~*~*~

I got up from class laughing. We were talking about bungee jumping and Sarah's rope breaking so she does a face plant into water. No idea how we got on to it but it was funny.

I walked to my locker, chuckling. I saw Jonas waiting there for me.

"What's up?" I asked him. He looked all nervous.

"Can we, uh, talk?" he asked me.

"Shoot," I told him, putting my books away.

"In private," he whispered. That made me raise my eyebrows. But I gave in anyways.

I grabbed all of my stuff and we walked to the back of the school.

"So what's up?" I asked him.

"I have, uh… um…" I saw Jonas get redder and redder.

"SPIT IT OUT!" I almost yelled.

"Okay! Okay! Just don't yell and don't tell _anyone_. I like Liz!" he blurted. Liz… I knew a Liz… hm, Liz, Liz, Liz…. LIZ SUTTON!

"Liz Sutton?" I asked. He nodded his head. He was so red I almost thought he wasn't breathing. Or was that blue? Whatever.

"So what's the problem?" I asked.

"I don't know if she likes me. Do you know what kind of guy she likes?" he asked me. Wow. Uhhh, I didn't know Liz very well.

"Noooo," I started out. I saw his face fall. I couldn't let Jonas down! "But I can find out." I saw him perk back up. Atta way.

"I'll ask her tomorrow. She's in one of my classes."

"Thanks a bunch Cammie."

"Yep." With that I ran back into the school. Why? To see if Kyle was there shooting baskets. I ran to the gym. I saw a body surrounded by basketballs. 50-50 chance it was Kyle. I opened the door and slowly shut it, so it wouldn't slam shut. I walked over to the body.

Yep it was Kyle. There was only one person I knew who would fall asleep at school. That was Kyle.

I laughed and put away the basketballs. Then I grabbed one and lightly shot it at him. It's going, it's going… it hit!

The ball bounced onto Kyle, causing him to jerk up.

"Wha? Huh?" he looked at the ball mysteriously moving. I giggled. He quickly looked over by me.

"Morgan!" I laughed and ran around the gym, trying to avoid getting a basketball chucked at me. Finally he gave up. We stopped running and took a break.

"That's a fun run," I said.

"Yep." A man of many words. We got up and shot some baskets, and finally I knew I had to go home. I mean, I knew Grant was going to kill me already for not going home with him and not telling him, but if I was any later, I think he would have my head.

I grabbed my bag and started out the doors. Suddenly I heard a door slam and footsteps running. I turned around to see Kyle with his backpack slung over one shoulder.

"I'll walk you home," Kyle said.

"Uh, not the best plan," I told him. I knew Grant would have my AND Kyle's heads if I came home with him.

"I think Grant likes me," he said with a grin. I looked up at. How would he know that.

"We were talking during lunch," he said. I groaned. Please, he didn't say anything embarrassing!

"Did he say anything?" I asked him.

"Not that I remember…" he said trailing off.

We talked the rest of the way. Finally we got to my house. I walked in and waved bye to Kyle. He waved back and kept on walking down the street. I wonder where he lives… Ack, no!

"So do you like him?" I heard Mace call.

"He's a friend, Mace," I called down the stairs.

Yeah. He's just a friend.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ironically, my woodshop teacher's name is Mr. Woods. Lol. Well review!


	8. After school fun

I got in my room and I saw Grant sitting on my bed.

"Hi ya, Grant. Now get out of my room." He sat on the bed just as stubbornly. "What do you want?" I asked him. He wanted something. He always sat there until he got what he wanted.

"I want you to switch rooms with me." My jaw dropped. No way. I had put everything in place! Plus I love this room.

"No way," I responded.

"So do you like Zach?" What the heck?! How does Zach...?! I turned on my heel and ran down the stairs. I went into the kitchen with Mace. At least she wouldn't talk to me. I pulled out my homework and was beginning to work when I saw paper sticking out of my math book. When did that get there?

I pulled it out and it was a note. I opened it up. There was a good chance it was from Zach but whatever.

'Hey. It's Zach. Just give me a chance, ONE chance. I promise I won't screw it up.'

I rolled my eyes. How did I know.

I just got here. I didn't want a boyfriend. Not yet at least… I folded the note back up and stuck it in my book as a book mark. I pulled out my books and did my homework. Then I remembered I would have to talk to Liz. I wonder what kind of person she was. Knowing Jonas she had to be smart… I guess I could go talk to her at lunch. My siblings would be mad, I mean I have been kind of ditching out on them. But it's still early in the year! Oh well.

I went back upstairs. Grant wasn't in there anymore. I set my books down and opened up the drapes. It looked so nice outside. It made me want to just run out there. I sneezed. Oh yeah. I was sort of sick. No way I was going to be able to get out of the house. I sighed and sat on my bed and stared out the window. It was so calming… Then motion caught my eye again. I saw Zach over in his backyard with the little boy. They were both shooting baskets. Was that kid his brother or a neighbor? Anyways, the little boy was trying to shoot a basket into the mini hoop they had. He was shooting all wrong. It didn't look right. I saw him sit down frustrated. Zach noticed and walked over the kid started to cry. Jeez Zach, what did you say? Then I saw Zach pick him up and make him stand was kneeling on one knee while showing the kid how to hold the ball. Then he showed the follow through. Then the little kid tried to do it. He was struggling at first but then after a while he started to get the hang of it. Then they were both shooting baskets.

Zach does have his sweet sides.

~*~*~*~

I went to bed early. I didn't feel like seeing Grant at dinner. Hopefully no one would disturb me. I fell asleep easily. I had a weird dream. One of me in a red strapless dress dancing with Zach. We were both smiling. I was assuming we were at some dance. I woke up. That was one of the shortest dreams I've ever experienced. I looked at the clock. 7:45. Sighing I ran down for dinner. But there Mace was eating in her uniform.

I ran back upstairs and got changed. I guess the question now was what's for breakfast.

I went back down. Now Grant was down there eating in his uniform. Well I'm earlier than normal.

I ate a bowl of cereal quickly and got on my shoes. Grant and Mace were already walking. Thanks for leaving me guys. I quickly tied on my pumas and ran out to catch up with them. We all walked to school. This time we weren't early.

"So, Grant, when are you going to take me shopping?" I asked him with a grin.

"Aw, shit that's right! I have to buy you a dress!" I saw him close his eyes and think. Ha ha. Take that.

"What color did you buy again, Macey?" Grant asked. Wait hold up. Macey bought me my dress?

"It's this really pretty light green," Mace said while spinning around.

"How much again?" he asked sighing.

"It was only 600…" Mace trailed off. I sighed.

"Am I going to fit in it?" I asked. Mace perked up.

"What kind of idiot wouldn't make sure of that," Mace demanded. I rolled my eyes. We were at the school now and today _I_ was walking ahead. Grant ran to catch up with me, and stare down any boy that looked my way.

I went to my locker and Grant stayed with me for some reason. I saw Dhine look back in a little fear.

"Okay, Grant, you can go now," I said, picking out the materials for English.

"Nah, I'll walk you to class," he said back. I could hear the grin in his voice.

"Do you want to make my life a living hell?" I muttered under my breath. Dhine heard it and cracked up.

"What are you laughing at," Grant demanded. Dhine looked back and shut up. I flashed him a sideways glance with a sorry face on. Then I shut my locker and walked with Grant to English.

I walked in and a lot of people were already here. I was sort of stunned actually. Zach and Tina were sitting on opposite sides of the room, but still in the back row. Tina was glaring at me. I just walked to my seat and sat. Bex came walking in.

"Oh, he's looking at you," she teased.

"I don't care," I responded. She just smiled and giggled.

"What's with you and love?" I asked.

"I don't know. But I do know that Zach Goode wants _you_."

That was a great way to start class.

~*~*~*~

The bell rung and class ended. As soon as that bell rang I heard Tina's stuck up voice fill the air.

"Zachy!" I rolled my eyes. I saw Zach shoot right past me and out the door. I looked around, looking like I was super confused at this. Then Tina came over. She looked mad. Hey, it wasn't my fault your ex broke up with you because you're a slut.

"I don't know what you've done to Zachy-boo, but I will get him back," she growled into my face. Then she strutted off like she was the shit.

"You've got a lot of enemies already," Bex said, staring at Tina's retreating figure. About halfway down the hall we saw Tina trip and fall. We cracked up. Mr. Robison looked out of the doorway but Tina was up and strutting, as if nothing happened.

I guess she has dignity…

I went to all my classes, my eyes alert for Liz. Nope. Not is a single one of my morning classes. I went to lunch and I saw Kyle at my table laughing. Okay. That's different. Maybe Grant does like him. I quickly dismissed the idea and scanned the lunch room for Liz. She was sitting by herself at an end a table. I looked around. No one else was by themselves. Perfect excuse to go talk to her.

I walked through all the tables. Man, I wasn't used to this. All I had to do was go along the room's sides to get to the corner. She was at the opposite end. I heard a lot of wolf whistles and I held my skirt down. Someone tried flipping it. I was holding it down luckily. Good thing I'm used to this from my old school. Girls would do it to each other as jokes.

Then someone grabbed my arm and pulled me down. I found myself sitting in a certain Zachary Goode's lap with his arms all around me and mine on his chest.

"Hey, Gallagher Girl," he said with a smirk. I blushed. This was not the exact position I wanted to be in. I was inches from his face… "Good to know I have some kind of effect on you," he said with a smile. I quickly got up. I'm sure everyone was staring at me by now. I heard some clapping. Those asses.

Finally I reached Liz. She was alone eating some kind of pasta I presumed.

"Hey," I softly called. She looked up startled. I don't think she was used to people talking to her.

"What do you want me to do? Hack it? Research?" she was wondering what I wanted to use her for? What kind of people does she hang around with?!

"No, I saw you were sitting alone and I was wondering if you wanted to talk," I told her. She looked at me like I was crazy. She burst into gales of laughter.

"No seriously. What do you want?" she asked. She didn't believe me?

"I'm Cammie Morgan. Nice to meet you," I said, trying to start a conversation.

"Sutton, Liz Sutton," she replied. Bond fan?

"I saw you were in my history class, and I don't know much about you, but I was wondering if you wanted to join a club," I told her with a grin. Maybe if the two are in a club…

"What kind of club?" she asked. I saw a spark of interest in her eyes.

"It's a secret. It's a club with me and Jonas-" I stopped. I saw her blush slightly at Jonas. Hmmm, this may work.

"After school today meet us in the computer lab," I told her then I walked over to the table Jonas was at. All of his nerd (not trying to be mean but…) friends looked up at me in awe.

"Hey, Cammie," Jonas said. I smiled. His friends all blushed. Wow. Okay then, let's make this short.

"After school," I said. He smiled and nodded. Then I left. I heard all of his friends ask him what that meant but he wouldn't tell… he couldn't.

Finally I made it to my table.

"Can I kill that Goode kid," Grant asked. I could tell from his muscles bulging and his death grip on the table he was doing all he could from not killing that kid.

"Um Grant, we're in school." That didn't calm him down one bit. The bell rang.

"Try not to murder the kid," I told him as I left.

"Bye Mace! Bye Kyle!" I left the lunch room. I got to my locker and got my history books and stuff. I walked into class and Mr. Solomon wasn't there. Me, being the first person there, went to the door and read the note.

'No Class.

After school activity.

Meet in the back by flag pole.

Go to study hall.'

Huh. I walked over to Jonas's locker. Luckily he was still there.

"Liz and I are going to be late today," I told him. He looked at me strange.

"Why?"

"Mr. Solomon has some after school activity for us," I said.

"Oh, then call it off. His activities are usually field trips. We'll do it tomorrow."

Huh. So our teacher was a strange one.

I went back to my locker and put my stuff away. I grabbed my math book and head down to the library for study hall. Then I back tracked. I ran to the gym. Sure enough there Kyle was, shooting baskets.

"You must really love basketball," I said walking in. He just kept shooting. I guess he was used to me by then.

"You skipping class?" he called down the gym. He was on the other side. He came running down and then threw the ball to try to make a half court shot. It went in again. Wow.

"My teacher has an 'after school' activity. I was sent to study hall." He looked back at me and grinned. So you're going to study in here.

"Pretty much."

"Good luck with that." I pulled out my math and started working. He was right though, him shooting made me want to shoot. Then he stopped and put them all away.

"I guess I can go study for once," he said, picking up his materials. We walked down the halls to the library. It was pretty full. So we walked to the lunch room. Barely anyone was there. We walked to a corner and I did my math while he did his Latin. It was all going great until I got stuck.

"Ugh, can you help me?" I asked him. He looked at the book. He started using his fingers to point out how to do the problem. I was amazed. Usually it takes our teacher 15 minutes to explain it simply and solve it but it took him 5.

"You're smart," I said in shock. He rolled his eyes and went back to studying.

The bell rung and the rest of the day flew by quickly. I gathered up my stuff from science and put my books away. I grabbed my homework and stuffed it into my bag. That's when I noticed all the notes. There were no notes on my books. Instead someone had put them all in the basket. That worried me. That meant someone knew my combination. I grabbed the few notes and ran out the door to the back. I saw Liz by herself, while everyone else was talking to each other. I saw Zach and he winked at me. I rolled my eyes and went over by Liz.

"Hey!" I said. She gave me a small smile. "The thing for tonight is cancelled but we're doing it tomorrow. You think you want to go?" she nodded. Wow. She doesn't talk much. She must be shy.

Then Mr. Solomon came from the other side. With two vans.

"Girls in one the boys in the other!" he yelled. We all scrambled into the vans.

"Get comfy, this is going to be a long drive," our driver yelled to us. Great. Liz and I went to a corner while other girls went and laid on each other or leaned back. This van was very different. It wasn't like seat sideways, but seats along the edges. It was very different. Then there was this middle seat thing where all the seats' backs were put up against each other. It was just a very different car. After a while a lot of the girls fell asleep. There were no windows which made it boring. I opened up the notes from my locker. The little light on the roof was shining just enough light to make out some of the words. I opened the first one.

'I love you Cammie! Let's have lunch together, JUST LIKE THAT again! -Z :)' Ugh, sexist pig.

'Sorry I'm such an overprotective brother. I'll try to stop but no guarantees. Plus you can get on my butt about liking her too. Love you- Grant. p.s. I put all of your notes in your basket.' So that's why I didn't see any notes.

I folded them back up and went to sleep. Suddenly I woke up from the bright light shining through.

"Up and at 'em ladies," Mr. Solomon called. I got up and we were at some hanger.

"Today we will be looking at World War II planes. You are free to go anywhere with a partner for the 2 hours we are here. Remember though you'll have to write an essay on this. I looked at Liz. But then Mr. Solomon stopped me.

"Oh no, Ms. Morgan. I believe you already have a partner."

~*~*~*~

"So Zach, what do you want to look at first," I said half-heartedly. I was not in the mood to be his partner.

"I don't care. I thought maybe looking at the planes would be cool." We walked outside to see the planes that they used in WWII. The guy helped us up the ladder to get a better look. Then he let us go inside because no one was outside. It was only us and the plane. He told us to keep it secret because we weren't supposed to. I got front Zach got back. I looked at all the controls. This was cool! I was about to get out when my shirt caught a switch. I pulled my shirt up and the switch flipped up. Suddenly the front fan started spinning. The guy had left for a second, and I guess that second really counted. I had no idea what to do so I started flipping switches. I heard a tap on the back glass. I looked back to see Zach pointing and motioning to put the head set on. By now a lot of people were outside trying to get us to stop. Too bad I had no idea what I was doing. Because suddenly the plane began to move forward.

Did they not put stoppers on these things?! I put on my headphone thing and I heard Zach clearly. I surprised me I could hear him so well over the fan.

"Want to take it for a spin?" he asked through the microphone.

"Are you crazy! We'll freeze! Plus I don't know how to fly a plane!" I said back suddenly I saw him get up and jump over the glass to the front.

"YOU'RE CRAZY!" I screamed at him. Everyone/everything was so hectic it was shocking. The people working were trying to come over without getting hit. Zach started steering.

"Hop in back," he commanded me. I did as told. I didn't want to die. I went in back.

"Let's hope this baby still works," Zach said. My eyes widened. This was dangerous. Then I heard another voice.

"Mr. Goode, can you hear me?" I heard Solomon ask. What the hell?

"Yep. This thing is flyable right?" he asked back. I heard Mr. Solomon chuckle.

"Do you have a license to fly, Mr. Goode?" Mr. Solomon asked.

"I can just say I was trying to stop it." Well it looks like we're trying to run it to me. Suddenly I saw lights. Uh-oh. The cops.

"Well, if you want to get arrested then go ahead. If you don't listen very carefully," Mr. Solomon told us. Finally I saw Zach give in. "Flip the blue switch first. Then the red. Next turn the knob on the very left to 45." He went on with all of these instructions. I was just freaking out.

"Cammie? Breathe." I heard Zach tell me. Well it's not every day a plane starts moving on you and you may be arrested.

Finally the fan started slowing down and people came with these huge cement blocks. Where were those before?! They secured the back first. Then once the fan stopped they did the front. They brought a ladder up and yelled at us. Or mostly Zach. I guess seeing how ghostly pale I was, and how excited Zach looked made the difference of who to blame.

They took me out first because I was pale. They gave me water and stuff. Then Zach hopped out. I'm sure he'd be bragging about this tomorrow. We left early. All the girls were staring at me. I mean I wasn't the one who started this whole deal. It was _Zach_.

After a VERY long ride home we arrived at the school at sun set. That was pretty late considering the sun set at about 8 these days. The ride must have been a long one.

I got out and looked around. Yep, no cars waiting for me. I started on my way home when Zach caught up with me.

"Pretty exciting, huh?" he asked smiling. His smile wasn't half bad. It was way better than that signature smirk of his.

"Um, if you count almost getting arrested exciting, then yes," I replied.

"You were as white as a ghost!"

"Ha ha ha, Zach. Just rub it in while you can."

"Well I know you think that driving that plane would've been fun," he said.

"Yeah, if I knew how to drive and it was legal, _maybe_." I stopped.

"You know you wanted to go fly," he said laughing. He kept on going. I looked right. Yep this was my house.

"Where are you going?" I asked trying not to laugh.

"Huh what?" he finally turned around to see me standing about 10 feet back.

"So you don't want to go home or what?" I asked.

He closed his eyes and said, "There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home," while tapping his heels together and mimicking Dorthy's voice. I cracked up. He looked like an idiot in the middle of the street acting like Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz.

"Okay then, bye Dorthy. I'll see you tomorrow!" I laughed as I ran inside.

"How was the field trip?" Grant asked me poking his head out of the kitchen.

"I almost got arrested. But otherwise, good." I laughed at Grant's face. I ran upstairs and changed.

You know what?

That was kind of fun.


	9. summer time!

School got cancelled for some reason. Don't know why. Only reason I know why there's no school is because I woke up at 8:40 and no one cared.

I got up and looked outside. Yep. It was really sunny out. I could hear the air conditioner on downstairs.

I ran down the stairs into the kitchen. Mace was there lying on the living room floor in her swimsuit. She's trying to get a tan through the glass? Grant was no where in sight.

"Mace, where's Grant?" I asked her. I didn't even bother about school. If they didn't have too no one talked about it. Although it would be nice to know.

"Downstairs," she replied. I ran down the hall and down the stairs to the garage.

I ran in and saw Grant and dad messing around with the boat.

"Are we going somewhere?" I asked. Dad looked up.

"We're going tubing like we used to!" dad said excitedly. I smiled. 10 feet of air. That was a nice feeling. "This time the Goodes are coming with us!"

That smile just turned upside down.

I ran upstairs screaming.

Leaving them in wonder.

"What's wrong?" Mace asked sitting up at my screaming.

"We are going tubing with the Goode family," I barely muttered out.

"Oh my gosh. That's a crisis!" at least Mace understood. "Don't worry. I have the perfect swimming suit for you." No she did not. She went running upstairs. I ran outside, trying to hide from Mace. I looked over at Zach's house. No way she'd go looking over there. I hopped the fence.

A certain someone just had to come out of the door.

"Hey, you just couldn't get enough of me?" he asked. I rolled my eyes.

"I need to hide. Can I go in your house? Yeah? Thanks." With that I went running into the house.

"Hi Cammie!" his mom called I waved. I ran up the stairs. They sure didn't mind.

"Wait, Gallagher Girl. Where are you going?" I heard Zach call to me from behind. I had no intention of waiting for him. I ran in his room. Okay, awkward but whatever. I was planning on jumping balconies. Just as I got to the end Zach's dad came in and yelled at me.

Busted.

So first I was yelled at for going in Zach's room, although he was right behind. But then that set off alarms about us… uh... Then he saw me about to jump off the balcony. So I got yelled at for that. So then he made me go home. Too Mace. She dragged me up the stairs into her room. I tried on like 50 swimsuits. Why did she even have that many?! And then she found this orange bret with yellow polka dots. So then she wanted me to wear it so she put it in my hair to hold my bangs back. Then she decided that the white swimming suit I was wearing didn't match the hair clip. So she then went into her closet to pick out orange or yellow swimming suits. I'll tell you, yellow does NOT look good on me. So we had to go with orange. So she made me try on like 5 orange ones until finally she liked one. It was this white one with an orange outlining and light orange stripes going sideways. There were little white beads on all the orange ties.

"Perfect!" she squealed. Yeah, perfect for _him_.

~*~*~*~

We went up to the lake in separate cars, keeping the fighting between the two boys at a minimum. I had no idea what we were going to do on the boat. Well I guess the parents will be sitting in back taking pictures of us flying in the air. So that left the four of us up front.

Dad made everyone get on the boat so we wouldn't have to have everyone jumping on the boat once it was in water. Grant drove the boat of the trailer and I had to tie it up to the dock so dad could get on. He parked the car and hopped on the boat. The water was really crowded at the dock. It was really nice out. Once everyone cleared out those we went through channels to this one body of water. No one was on it. I could see why.

There were some major white caps out there. Not the best kind of water you want to be on. But dad loves it because it just makes the tube go _flying_.

"Who's out first?" dad asked tying the tube to the back.

"The boys," Mace said. She only goes if there's some major air. Otherwise it's not worth it.

They put on their life jackets and Grant reluctantly went on with Zach. I waved bye to Zach. I'm sure Grant didn't tell him to hold on tight. I would get to see a certain Zachary Goode go flying. They laid on their stomachs and dad didn't even let them get ready. He poured on speed from the get go, and the tube was sort of bouncing on the water. Mace and I were watching from the front. Suddenly our end dipped major and we went back up. If we flew on the boat... Uh-oh. I looked back. The tube literally flew 5 feet in the air, even in the boat's cove. I saw Grant fly and his feet were probably going to crash on his head. Now Zach, I don't even know where he went. Dad slowed down laughing and went around to pick Zach up. He was a ways back there. I motioned for him to wave his hands. He followed instructions well enough.

We finally came near him and Grant picked him up by the life vest and pulled him on. Grant motioned for another round. Dad immediately stepped on the gas and Mace and I started bouncing up front. I watched them back there. They were on the tube, they were flying off the tube, they were slamming into the tube, they bounced of the tube, they went flying on the tube, and they slammed back into the tube. This went on for a while, but then a speed boat went racing past. Major speed waves + major white caps + maniac dad.

This was going to be fun.

Mace and I stared back. Suddenly we went flying on the boat. I was watching Grant's expression. He was smiling huge, but then it changed to fear. The tube hit the wave and it went _flying_. I saw Grant lose grip along with Zach. They went sailing. I saw them and I think my jaw dropped. That would leave a mark.

We went back to round them up. Instead of coming on the tube they hopped on the boat. I don't think they were going to go on for a while.

"Cam's turn," dad said with a smile. I took off my sundress then. I saw Zach's eyes. Don't even want to say anything. Mace and I hopped on the tube, sliding into the water a little to get used to it. Then I saw Mace's eyes light up. She loves waves. I saw 2 speed boats go zipping by each other. Before I could say anything dad started moving. Suddenly I saw the boat go under and I knew wave number one was coming up. I was right.

The wave was huge. We hit it and went high into the sky, when we hit down again we were right in line for another wave which made us go flying again.

I bet we looked like acrobats holding on having our bodies bend this way and that. But I must admit, we were doing better than the boys did. Dad was hitting any possible big wave he could, but he wasn't shaking us off that easily.

Finally he stopped after a half an hour saying to switch off. I knew Grant wanted to go on, and Mace wasn't getting off. Which meant that I would get to go on with Zach. Shit. I'm with the newbie.

I traded with Grant and went up to the front. I might as well teach him some things so we don't go flying _too_ much.

"Okay, you know about evening out the weight?" I asked him. He looked totally lost.

"Okay, you want to balance the tube so we don't go flipping sideways-" suddenly we dipped and I saw the two fly. Grant's not the greatest at balancing the weight… and the tube went flipping sideways, throwing them both off. "Er… so we don't do that." I said pointing.

Mace was done. She crawled onto the tube and pulled the rope in so she wouldn't have to swim. That's Mace for you.

"I'm done with that idiot. You two can go on," she huffed. She grabbed her towel and sat on the floor. I got up which signaled Zach to get up. We got onto the tube.

"Try to keep balance," I said sitting on the tube this time. It's easier to keep balance sitting.

But then dad decided to take off before Zach could fully sit and he went flying off backwards. I couldn't help it, I laughed like no tomorrow. Dad went around so that we could pick him back up. He grabbed the handles soaking wet like a wet puppy. It just made me laugh harder. Then I felt myself being pushed in. That bastard! He pushed me in! I got out of the water, just as wet as him but no hair in my eyes.

"Way to go, genius. Now how are we going to get on," I yelled at him across the tube.

"I'll hold on so you just jump on," he told me. I rolled my eyes and got on. Then I helped him up. Dad let us get situated because he didn't want to waste time of us pushing each other into the water and what not.

Then he picked up speed and we were like a skipping stone, skidding over the water. Then I saw the boat dip.

"Hold on!" I called. I looked down to see his knuckles white. Well not that tight but whatever. Then we went flying. His side dipped so I leaned on my side. We landed even.

"That's how you do it," I said with a grin. He grinned back.

"Hold on tight, Gallagher Girl," he said. What? Was he mocking me?

We went on a big wave - like we were _way_ above water. His side dipped so I leaned towards my side. But for some reason we kept going his way.

Shit he was doing this on purpose!

I leaned his way to get the turn through quicker and we barely landed even.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded. Did he want to fall in the water? The boat slowed down.

"What was that!" I heard my dad call. I looked up. My mom was recording everything.

"That's what we call a 360," I told him. Might as well make them think we were trying to do it.

"Nice!" he called back. Then he picked up speed right when we weren't expecting it. Luckily I was holding on.

Half of Zach went flying.

I looked over to see the bottom half of Zach. His feet were locked on the handles and he was pulling himself up. I laughed. He got a hold of the handles and got in the right position. We hit a wave.

"Nice abs," I joked. I mean, not every boy can pull himself up by his stomach while moving at 40 miles per hour. I mean out here that would be about 80!

He was about to say something but then shut up.

Probably for the better.

~*~*~*~*~

We finished up tubing (for the time being) and we went through another channel to a more secluded area. There wasn't as much wind so it was way calmer. I sat on the very tip of the boat. I loved to feel the wind whip past me and my towel. I just did. Mace sat next to me talking about some swimsuit competition with Grant. Of course he would know about it. Then he averted Mace's attention to Zach's swim trunks. It was white with blue Hawaiian flowers all over the sides. She started talking about it with Zach.

Grant came over by me up to the very front.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey yourself," I said right back.

"I have a question. Uh… it's a little awkward… um." Grant was stuttering. Grant. It was like Jonas all over again.

"Spit it out," I told him. I don't think I was liking where this was going.

"I uh… I…." he couldn't finish it.

I wasn't sure I wanted him to finish it.

"I like Bex," he whispered. My eyes widened involuntarily.

"Like Bex as in Bex? Like Bex Baxter, Bex?"

"Yes, as in your friend Bex!" he said blushing.

Wait whoa. My brother just blushed?!

Or rather he's talking about liking someone?!

And that someone is my best friend?!

"Okay…" I said, honestly shocked. I mean it's not every day your brother comes up to you and says he likes your best friend when he's like the most over protective person in the world!

"Sooooo," he said trailing off.

"I think that's my line," I said. I'm not sure I was going to recover from this one. And it was still only like 1! We still had hours to go. At least we were going in for lunch. We were deciding right now.

"HEY KIDDO! LAST ROUND AND WE'RE GOING TO MAXWELL'S TO GET SOME FOOD!"

"Maxwell's! That place on the lake! We'll go there for lunch!" dad concluded. I was busy staring at where the voice called from. There was this person wakeboarding. It looked like so much fun. He hit all these waves and did fancy tricks and stuff. Then they went whipping by us. I saw a mom, a dad, what looked like a little sister, and the person wakeboarding who looked like Kyle.

Wait that was KYLE!

"KYLE!" I yelled waving. He did a little spin thing to look back. He saw me and waved.

"You know the boy?" dad asked me. I nodded.

The boat came up next to us. Kyle was reeling himself in. It was kind of awkward, no one talked. But then Kyle got on.

"Cammie? Cammie! What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Tubing obviously," I smiled, pointing to the back.

"Cool, well my family's going to go eat, so maybe we'll see you on the water," he said smiling. He waved off and they left for Maxwell.

We sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Should we tell them we're going too?" dad spoke up.

~*~*~*~

Sadly the only dock open was right next to Kyle's boat. Same place, same dock, what's next? I slipped on some shorts and walked out. I waited for Mace; she came out right after me.

"Ugh, I can not walk!" she muttered, having trouble walking in a straight line. More or less she was trying to strut, but it wasn't working very well. She gave up and we ran in to the few restaurants.

Maxwell was a bay that boats could dock up to and grab a bite to eat. They had like four restaurants - Mexican, burger place, Greek, and some other burger joint. I ran for the first burger place. I felt like a hamburger and I wanted it now! I ran in giggling with Mace, trying to lose the boys. They'd probably end up going to the other one, Grant knowing I liked that one better.

"Cammie?" I looked to see Kyle and his family in line.

"Oh hey!" I said laughing.

"Grabbing a bite to eat," Mace said with a smile. His parents did a double take with Mace.

When she wants to be, she can be the most beautiful person on this planet.

Then mom and dad then came in with Mrs. Goode.

"Chris Morgan," dad said introducing his self. He stuck out his hand. What is with hand shaking?!

"Andy Heag," his dad said smiling. His dad was tall, 6' 3'' maybe? He had fair skin and blond hair. He had blue eyes and blond hair.

"Emi Heag," his mom said. She looked Asian. She had black hair (no wonder where he got his black hair from) down to her shoulders and pretty brown eyes. She was smaller than his dad, but still plenty tall. 5' 9'' maybe? She was pretty.

"This is Crystal," she said pointing to the girl. The little girl had long blond hair with green eyes (where'd she get that from?) and she was very petite.

"I'm Rachel Morgan," mom said smiling.

"My name is Natalie Goode," Mrs. Goode said smiling.

"Okay, enough with introductions. Can we eat?" Macey whined. She got away with it. Whereas I never would.

We ordered and got our food. I walked outside which brought Mace and Kyle. We went to one of the picnic tables. It was round so I wouldn't have to transfer sides when Grant came. I took a larger bite out of my burger. I was hungry. It was like I just noticed. Ha ha ha.

"So you actually eat," Kyle said.

"Doesn't everyone?" I asked.

"I don't think I've ever seen you actually eat something. Like at school you're always sleeping," he explained. Well I guess I've never eaten in front of him.

"Hey guys! Thanks for ditching us!" Grant exclaimed as he pushed me over into Kyle. He sat down. Zach sat between Grant and Mace.

"I was hungry," I said, brushing it off.

"Yeah, leave us a sign where you go or something," Zach smiled.

"Ha ha ha. We'll just bring a neon flashing sign from now on," Mace said sarcastically.

Wait. Something wasn't right. Why wasn't Grant trying to kill Zach?

WHY WAS HE SITTING NEXT TO HIM?!

"I'm going to get my soda. I forgot it," I said dismissing myself. Somehow I knew disaster was going to strike.

I ran inside to get my cup from mom. I went to the machine and filled it up with sprite. I was watching them out the window. Mace looked bored and Grant was yelling at Zach. Kyle looked like he was about to sleep.

I decided I didn't want to disturb their.. Uh… talk.

I went over by the parents and sat down next to Crystal.

"Hi, I'm Cammie," I said.

"I know all about you," she replied.

"Oh really."

"Kyle thinks you're amazing at basketball and could maybe get beaten by you. The only reason he's starting up again," she said as she spun her straw through her drink.

"So he stopped?" I asked.

"Yep. He hasn't played for… hmmm…. Oh about 3 years," she said.

"Why?" I asked. I mean didn't he have a scholarship for basketball?

"No idea. He doesn't tell me _everything_," she said. Huh. That was weird anyway.

We finished up eating and went out onto the water. I was staring at his wakeboard the whole time.

I saw Kyle laugh.

"Do you want to try wake boarding?" he asked me. I looked at my dad. He nodded. I got out and ran over to their side.

"Do you want to meet back here later?" dad asked.

"Sure. I'll have Cammie give you a call," Mr. Heag said. With that we parted ways. I knew Mace would kill me later for leaving her with boys, but whatever. This was going to be way cooler. We drove over to a clearing, the water was calm. For first time people I guess.

"Alright, slip these boots on," he told me holding onto me so that I wouldn't fall in. I slipped my feet in.

"Okay, hold onto this rope. It's like tubing at a point. You want to keep balance. Only you want to keep your front end up a little higher. So don't land level, but your front up a little. That's only if you hit a wave." He went on to explain to me how to do everything and I was set.

I swam into the water and waited for the boat to start.

I heard the motor start and I felt a tug at the end of the rope. I held on tightly and suddenly I was making my way out of the water. Next thing I knew I was gliding over the water. I saw Kyle clap for me. I smiled. This was so much fun. We went wake boarding for the rest of the day. I went of some waves. I landed… but I mostly fell. Finally after a while. I just called it quits and let Crystal do it. She's amazing. Let me tell you.

Girl has some moves.

We talked about me moving here and where I lived. I told them I lived right on Abercrombie drive and they laughed. I guess they only lived a few more houses down (well 10 but whatever).

I called my dad. I guess they were already getting ready to go. I told him the Heag's could take me home but he refused. I told him they only lived some houses down and finally he gave in. I smiled and told him I loved him then shut the phone. After a while it became too dark to go wake boarding and they stopped. Instead we got out of the water and went to a restaurant down the road to eat dinner.

It tasted amazing. It was some sea food place and the crab I had tasted DELICIOUS. After like, 10, we started heading home. I fell asleep in the car.

The next time I woke up I was in my room. I looked at the clock. 12:34. I looked out the drapes and it was dark. I made a wish and fell back asleep.


	10. computers

I woke up to an alarm. I guess there's school. Yippee. I got changed into my uniform yawning. I brushed my hair and brushed my teeth. Then I walked downstairs. Grant was waiting for me as usual.

"Here you go, he said as he tossed me a bag of honey nut cheerios.

I put the bag in my mouth so I could tie my shoes. I tied them tight then went running out to catch up with Grant and Mace.

"Morning, Gallagher Girl," Zach greeted me from behind. I stopped.

"Hey Zach," I said.

"How was wake boarding?" he asked me.

"What? Was my siblings not even worth talking too?" I joked.

"Well if Grant didn't threaten me every time you leave maybe I'd have a better time."

I couldn't tell if he was honestly telling me the truth or not.

I could believe that Grant was though.

"It was amazing. I think I want a wakeboard for Christmas," I said giggling.

"Yeah, and I want a jacuzzi," Zach said sarcastically.

I started eating my cheerios.

"What's that?" Zach asked.

"That is my breakfast," I replied, stuffing more cheerios into my mouth.

"And you're eating your breakfast now," Zach sort of questioned.

"Yep," I said with my mouth full. Oops.

He laughed. "You are such a lady. Shall I call you Princess?" I gagged.

"NO you shall not," I replied. No way I wanted to be called a princess.

"Then you're a Prince," Zach said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes. Whatever.

We walked to school normally conversing. Then I realized once we got there I was walking in with Zach.

"So you got her, huh?" a guy asked Zach. He waved by and talked to that guy. I just walked straight to my locker. I opened it up and I had a few notes. Already. I grabbed them and walked to English. I got to class and I sat down to read them.

'Hey Gallagher Girl. What cha doing tonight? -Z' Was this given to me on Monday or today? Couldn't be today. I don't remember seeing them… I looked at the next note.

'Want to get a bite to eat after school today? -Z' Again, was this today or Monday? Wait no it had to be Monday.

'Today is today, Gallagher Girl. Today as in Wed. -Z'. Wow. How did he manage to get these in my locker already?

People started filling in. I put the notes away. I saw Zach come in. We made eye contact and he winked. I looked down embarrassed. Tina came in with a glare. She kept her glare right on me. Then Bex came in.

"Is it true?" she asked me. Uh, that depends… please don't tell me Grant-

"You came into school with Zach?" she asked me. I sighed relief.

"Yeah I did," I replied with a small smile. Cammie and Zach… Zach and Cammie… I thought it had a nice ring.

"So you're official," Bex said excitedly.

"I don't know," I said blushing. I didn't know if we actually had something… but then Mr. Robinson saved me.

"Good morning, class!" he began all bright and cheery.

"Today we'll be working with direct objects and indirect objects." I zoned out. I had learned most of this stuff at Gallagher. They taught us almost everything there is to know.

Then I remembered the days at Gallagher, how we had to live there. We virtually never got to see our parents. I don't even know where Grant went. It was 'classified'. So then my dad was called back to the Navy, and I didn't see him for a very long time…

I didn't even get to say bye.

It sounded like Mr. Robinson was going onto something else. I tuned back in.

"When I was a kid-" and I was out of there.

I thought of the public school by Gallagher. Yeah, those coaches didn't give crap about me. They just thought I was a body. If I was good they played me more. Otherwise they didn't care. If I fell, they yelled at me. If I hit a ball, they yelled at me. I didn't know what to do to get them to _not_ yell at me.

I heard the bell ring. I quickly grabbed my stuff and walked to my locker. There was another note.

I smiled and read it.

'Computer room at lunch. Got a secret.-Z'

Hm. Wonder what my surprise is.

I shut my locker and went off to art.

I walked in and for some reason there was nothing laid out except for some of these hats. I walked to the table I always sat at. Knowing this class period, I would again have people sitting with me I didn't even know were in this class.

People walked in. I just stared at these hat type things. Hm. Were they hats? They were circular. I couldn't touch it so I had no idea.

Then Mrs. Nickolai came walking in and started up class.

"Alright artists. Today we're making hats!" oh. I was right. "But not just any hats. These hats will be voted on to be uniform hats!" Well that's interesting. "So not too creative, but be creative!" And with that she left us to work on our hats. No one was sitting with me. I guess my prediction was wrong. I grabbed the hat. Ohhhh, it was one of those art hats, the ones that are on your head but kind of aren't.

I grabbed a white hat. Where was the dying station?? I went over a few tables to find a table full of dye. Since our school colors were cream, gray, black, and white I choose to do gray. I mostly wore the gray sweater with 2 white stripes anyways. I dipped it into the dye put it in a plastic bag with no air (like tie-dying without the rubber bands). For the rest of class I was deciding what to put on it. Since I'm more of a plain girl I think I would make it plain. I took the school logo and but it on a white back. It looked okay. I waited for class to end.

Finally the bell rung and I went off. I grabbed my math books and I walked to class. I walked in and a lot of people were already in there. Mrs. Nickolai always let us out late. At least I wasn't late today.

I walked to a desk and waited for everyone else. After about 3 minutes everyone was here and Mr. Rydstrand started class. We were talking about a problem some kid had, and then not even 2 minutes later we were talking about his cat - Mr. Williams I think it was? It was really weird. He went on with stories of his cat, or childhood memories. It was strange. Sometimes it was funny. I dozed off. Usually if we got of subject we wouldn't get back on for a while.

So after my super boring class of math, I went to Spanish, where I'd probably zone out again because I learned it.

I walked in and Bex was already waiting for me.

"Hey Bex," I said I as I sat down by her.

"Is it just me or is school just boring or what?"

"It's boring. Everyone is off subject today."

We went through Spanish in a bore. It was super long. Such a drag. Finally the bell rang. I sprang up from my seat.

"Whoa, someone's excited," Bex announced.

"I'm talking to someone during lunch," I replied with a smile. I wonder what Zach had for me? I was excited to find out.

"Well I'll keep your seat warm," Bex said with a grin.

"You do that," I said right back. She giggled.

I walked to my locker and put my books away.

I almost ran to the computer room.

I walked into the computer room. I saw Zach. But then I also saw Tina. What was going on here?

"Zachy," she cooed. Then she went up to him and kissed him. It wasn't his fault.

Not until this kiss turned out into a full blown make out session.

"Zach?" I questioned. Please let this be a mistake, please let this be someone else.

"Zachy, Cameron is asking for you," Tina said with a victorious grin.

Zach turned around. "Cammie, Cammie no, this isn't what-"

"It seems?" I finished for him. This was like some cheesy movie where the boy is caught with another woman and they have the fight.

I turned on my heel and left. I ran down the halls. Avoiding the gym and lunch room. I walked to the nurse's office. Last place he would check.

"Hi, Cammie," the nurse greeted cheerily.

"Hi," I replied weakly. I was going to fake it.

"You don't sound well sweetie," the nurse said concerned. She was just making it easier.

"I don't feel good. I feel like I'm going to throw up," I said.

"Let me call your parents," she said. She sent me to one of the beds and called my parents.

Soon enough my dad came in.

"Hey, Cams. How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Honestly?" I asked.

"In the car." I weakly smiled.

We went to my locker and grabbed my stuff. Then we went to the car. While we were leaving I saw Zach running to the dome.

"Should we go tell them a kid is off campus?" dad asked me. I shook my head. I didn't care for him.

We went home and I went up stairs to go rest on my bed. I locked my balcony door and put my chair up against it so that he wouldn't be able to come in even if he unlocked it.

I flopped down on my bed and went to sleep.

~*~*~*~

I woke up to a soft tapping. It was coming from the house door.

"Who is it?" I asked in a small voice.

"It's Kyle. Lucky for you I bring homework." I softly laughed. He came in with my books in his hand. He had another bag with him.

"Hey," I said. I took my homework. "What's in the bag?"

"Uh, Jonas said something about camcorder? I think his name is Jonas… well anyways he wanted me to give it to you," he replied. I took the bag and opened it up. It was a really nice laptop.

I turned it on. It roared to life. I clicked 'Cammie' on the user names and it logged on. No password or anything. I logged on to aim and Jonas was on. I clicked it and sent a join video chat. It immediately responded and I was face to face with a red Jonas and a pinkish Liz.

"Hey guys, sorry I couldn't make it," I said with a soft voice.

"It's alright. You're sick," Liz replied.

I saw Kyle smirk at the end of my bed. I gave him the universal, 'what' gesture.

"I should have never taught you how to fake it," he whispered. I rolled my eyes.

"Is someone with you?" Jonas asked. I nodded my head yes.

"Do you want to talk after they leave or?" Jonas asked me.

"Yeah sure. Are you sure you guys can stay a while?" I asked.

"We can manage," Jonas said softly. They both were getting red. I could see a connection here.

"Alright. See you in a few," I said shutting the laptop.

I looked back up at Kyle.

"So what's up?" I asked him. He doesn't normally come into my house… wait, this was his first time!

"What happened?" he asked softly. He leaned up against the glass.

"I didn't feel good so I went to the nurse's office," I replied. Better stick with my cover…

"Yeah right. Something went wrong. What's going on between you and Zach?" I recoiled at his name. I didn't want to think about… that.

"How do you know?" I asked him. I was pretty sure I wasn't doing anything special with him. I only walked into school with him.

"It gets around. Tina made a move on Zach today I guess. She was shouting 'Take that MORGAN' down through almost all the halls. It was most annoying. And then Zach seemed pissed off today. It's like adding."

"Plus you have a chair under your balcony handle so it would be impossible to enter unless you used a lot of force," he answered simply enough. Wow. He was observant.

"Morgan, are you okay?" Kyle asked softly. I hadn't realized I was crying.

"I'm fine," I answered, whipping my tears, "I'm just tired."

"Then get some sleep," he told me.

I put my head on the pillow and fell asleep.

~*~*~*~

I woke up to a _really_ high pitched squeal. I slowly sat up and looked at my door.

Just as I thought, Mace came bursting in.

"Cammie, Cammie you have GOT to see this," she said with a smile. I rolled my eyes, and got out of bed.

"Wait, you were sleeping in your UNIFORM?! You idiot!" Mace almost screamed. I quickly go out of my uniform and slipped into some baggy shorts and a shirt. Then Mace dragged me downstairs.

"Close your eyes," Mace commanded me. "I don't trust you," she then said. She went behind me and walked me straight, then right.

Yep, we were in the kitchen.

"Okay, open them," she commanded taking her hands away.

I opened my eyes and there was a dozen roses wrapped in this beautiful paper.

"Wow, Mace. Who gave you this?" I asked. It wasn't everyday my sister got roses.

"No, Cammie. That's for _you_," she replied. I sat stunned for a minute. What if it were from Zach? No, I don't think he would.

I picked up the roses. They smelt nice. Then I counted them. It looked like a dozen.

I ended up with 13.

I counted again. Same thing - 13. I had Mace count it. She got 13. Then I noticed the letter on the table. I picked it up. On the front it had 'Cammie' written fancily.

I opened it up and it was a note.

_Cammie, will you go to homecoming with me?_

_-Kyle'_

Wow.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Someone asked if it was Zammie or Kammie. It's both overall.


	11. newspapers

I never did get back to Jonas and Liz. I felt sort of bad. But from what I saw in the halls, they were getting along _great_ together. Pathetically, I avoided Zach. I wouldn't look at him or anything.

Surprisingly Bex started sitting at our table, much to Grant's embarrassment. I guess he asked her if she wanted to come sit with us. Whoa, my brother's getting courage with girls!

In art I put together my hat and I actually won one of the hats! Even if it was plain! I liked it that way and I guess others did too. Another girl won too, her hat being a plaid with our school logo on the side. I guess a lot of people liked that idea because a lot of other hats did it the same way. They decided to make my hat in other colors to. So we had a black and white one.

School was boring as always. I think I might have fallen asleep sometimes. Whoops! I was turning into Kyle. Ha ha ha. So homecoming was in two weeks. I told Kyle I would go with him. I guess Kyle and I were a 'thing'. I don't know if we were going out, but we were best buds.

We got my dress a few days before homecoming. It was really pretty. It was this light green and it was spaghetti straps. It was long (it stopped at the floor) and not too flowy. It had all these little jewels at the top and at the bottom of the dress. Mace screamed when I wore it. I think she liked it.

Grant got his tux and he looked _REALLY _funny. He was all stiff. I laughed really hard. It was a black tux with a blue sash. Mace ordered it. She said Bex's dress was going to be blue. How'd she find that out?

Grant asked Bex to the dance the _cutest_ way. See, Bex is in soccer. So after practice, he kicked her a ball that he wrote 'Will you go to homecoming with me?' on it. It was adorable. It was funny how Bex dropped the ball and pretty much tackled him. Wasn't Grant supposed to be able to hold her up?

Mace was probably asked by 5 million boys if she wanted to go to prom with them. Finally she accepted this one guy from our school. His name was Toby or something. I wasn't keeping track. He started to brag to the whole school that he got Mace to go to prom with him. She cancelled it at lunch as soon as she heard about it. Then another boy named Sam asked her and she said yes. He didn't shoot off his mouth.

So now it was homecoming day and everyone was all excited. They said that the football team was going to dominate the Dover Mad dogs because of their star player. Can you guess who that is? Yeah, I think we all know. If you guessed Zach you're right. He was a wide receiver who didn't drop anything that came his way. I guess that's amazing. Our QB (quarterback) Jack Nichols was great at his timing and everything so him and Zach paired up was pretty much unstoppable. But he was a senior so no one knew what they were going to do next year. I guess the JV QB is also amazing, and the only reason he's playing JV is because he can have full play time. He made a spot on the varsity team though.

I walked through the doors of the school and grabbed a school newspaper. Whoever messed up the first one was sure to mess this one up. I guess he/she did it every 2 weeks. This week's was supposed to be especially funny. I looked at it and already cracked up.

The Green Onion. [There was a picture of a green onion right next to it. So it was a spoof of a spoof huh? I looked at the main page.]

Tina runs for Zach. [What the hell?]

Tina Walters, a slut, had been **dumped **by junior Zachary Goode because he found someone _way_ better, Ms. Cammie Morgan, the junior and up hottie.

[What the hell? I'm the 'junior and up' hottie and I didn't even know?]

The only reason she isn't the best is because we all know Macey Morgan would never let that happen.

[I laughed. Yep, there was no way that was ever happening.]

Well Zach was going to make his move on Cammie, when Tina interrupted them, the man whore. She just can't be left alone. She needs to be number one.

[That's for sure.] I looked up. I was at my locker. When did I? Oh whatever. I stuffed the paper in my locker and grabbed my books. I went off to class.

I sat down in my regular spot and Bex came running in.

"Cammie!-"

"Let me see it," I said. She handed me a newspaper. "A spoof of a spoof! Clever!" I said chuckling. I'm really going to have to find out who does this. I was about to start reading when Tina came in.

"Morgan, I swear. This has gone too far." I looked up and she looked like she was about to cry.

"Tina. I. Did. Not. Do. This," I stopped after every word so she could get it through her thick brain. I saw the principal walk down the halls grabbing every newspaper. Yeah, I agree. This isn't what you want a school newspaper to have on it.

"Then who did. Who is out to get me besides you. I mean, I do nothing and you get mad. I mean Zach hates me for kissing him. _We were going out_." oh really? I was pretty sure I heard he broke up with you during lunch.

"Whatever. Just get this. I didn't do _anything_." she was about to speak up but I saw movement on my left. Bex was probably threatening her. She left.

I saw people come laughing in. It was Zach and his friends. He wasn't as much laughing. He looked sort of serious. I looked down before we made eye contact. I was about to read more when the principal came in and snatched it.

"I haven't even read the first sentence!" I said. I had but he didn't need to know that.

"Did you write this, Mrs. Morgan?" he asked.

"Nope. If I'm reading it then I don't believe I have," I shot back. He really just ruined my good mood. He stared down at me. I kept my face straight. I wasn't going to be punished for whoever did this.

"If this happens again, Mrs. Morgan, I'm blaming you." I recoiled. That meant I was going to have to find out who did this in 2 weeks! He left and I stood up.

"Who did this?" I asked. I was really pissed off. No one said anything. I picked up my stuff and left the room. I heard Mr. Robinson call my name but whatever.

I didn't care.

I grabbed some paper and walked outside to the dome. I was surprised to see someone running along the track. I grinned and went back inside the school to go buy a gatorade.

I grabbed it out of the bottom and walked back outside. They really should get cameras or camcorders.

I walked out to the dome and stuck the gatorade in my backpack's side pocket. I started climbing the back fence. It was about 2 stories so 20 feet? Dangerous yeah I know. I got to the top and jumped over, holding myself up so I wouldn't go crashing into the bleachers. I made a thump and winced. I looked over at the track and Kyle was still running. I grinned.

I walked down the stairs, trying to avoid the squeaks. I sat down. He hadn't noticed me. I let him run for about 10 more minutes. Finally he was starting to slow down and panting like a dog. I giggled before putting on a straight face.

"You're going to wreck your body running like that," I said. He stopped at looked up. It's funny how irony can just reach up and slap you in the face.

"Morgan?" he asked in disbelief. "I must be seeing things." I walked down.

"What's wrong, Heag?" Wow. I think that was the first time I've ever called him by his last name. He chuckled.

"Do (pant, pant) you ever feel (pant, pant) like-"

"Okay I get it!" I said. He was trying to mock me.

"So you're skipping class," he said. I nodded my head. I mean that's what it looked like to me. "Why?'

"The principal accused me of writing the newspaper and I have 2 weeks to figure out who did it," I said casually.

"That… Sucks," he said.

"No kidding."

"Man, next thing I know you'll have a gatorade for me." I unzipped my backpack and tossed him the gatorade.

"Déjà vu!" he said. I laughed.

"Need me to open it?" I asked teasingly.

"Yeah no. I do have some dignity," he said laughing. He took a drink out of the gatorade. I noticed how sweaty his hands were. I looked at what he was wearing and did a double take.

He was running in a sweatshirt?!

"How long have you been running?" I asked him.

"10 minutes," he replied smoothly.

"Liar, I've been here for at least 20."

"Then I don't know."

"Take off your sweatshirt, you're going to die!" He stared at me. "Not in that meaning you perv!" I yelled at him. He just laughed. I don't think he's ever been that way to me.

"I didn't even say anything!" he said laughing. He pulled his sweatshirt up, his shirt caught, his shirt went up.

Damn, boy has some nice abs.

Why hadn't I noticed this tubing?! I mean, ack! What am I thinking?!

"Sorry," he mumbled as he pulled his shirt back down from over his head. I laughed.

"Are you trying to lead me on?" I asked him.

"What are you thinking, Morgan!" he exclaimed. That just made me laugh even more.

"I think you were trying to lead me on," I said smiling.

"Uh, I think we're a little too young," he said smiling. His smile was starting to do things to me. He leaned back onto his arms.

"You don't think," I stated sarcastically.

He chuckled. "You excited for the game tonight? I hear we're going to kick the crap out of the bulldogs."

"It's mad do-"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Please Lord; DON'T let this be like that Cinderella Story book thing. Please don't let me lose control and me having to leave the game.

"I guess so. I more excited for the dance." He grinned. I heard a bell. It was extra loud so that everyone knew what time it was. It was lunch time.

"Already?!" I exclaimed. He laughed.

"You hungry?" he asked.

"Not particularly," I replied. I didn't really want to go into the school. It just reminded me of Tina and that whole dilemma.

"See, you don't eat. That's why you're so skinny," he said looking me up and down. Okay, I know I was a little more on the skinny side, but when you have Mace for a sister… I don't think that can be helped.

"When you have Mace for-"

"a sister it can't be helped. Yada, yada, yada," he said quoting what I was going to said. Had I said this before? I chuckled. He looked up at me.

"So we aren't going in," he stated. I nodded yes. He laughed.

"One of these days. One of these days that nurse is going to call the cops on us," he said chuckling. He did have a point…

Reluctantly I got up. I think Mr. Solomon would have my head if I didn't show up. He raised his eyebrows questioning me.

"My freak teacher-" I started.

"is going to kill you. I get it. Go on. I'll see you after school." I looked back and he smiled. I smiled back and waved.

I hopped the fence and ran into the school. People were starting to flood the halls. I grabbed my history stuff and went to Mr. Solomon's room.

Again there was a note.

'Meet outside by the flagpole.

Now'

Demanding much. I turned around and started out the halls to the back door. Just as I thought it was propped out. I walked out and Mr. Solomon was waiting there.

"You're early Mrs. Morgan. Good." Wow, did he just complement me? I sat down on the side of the curb, waiting for the other students.

I looked out onto the street. Cars were zipping by at unbelievable speeds.

"Welcome, Mr. Goode," I heard Solomon say. Damnit. Why does this happen to me?! I heard footsteps come next to me. Whoever it was sat. I didn't shift my head one bit. I knew Mr. Solomon wouldn't come over. It had to be him.

"I know who's doing the newspaper junk," he whispered.

Fuck not looking! My head whipped over at him.

"Who?!" I demanded. Who was this idiot who was trying to be funny and get back at Tina but getting me in trouble.

"It's a boy named Liam Kelly. He's one of the funniest guys in the school. If you pay him I think he'll stop." With that he got up and left me. Liam Kelly huh?

~*~*~*~

Well our class period was spent outside looking at the school's features - such as the bricks, letterings, the year, all that stuff. I had no idea what this had to do with anything but we were doing it anyways. The bell rang and we walked in and went to class. The day finished up quickly and I walked to my locker. Dhine was putting his books away.

"Hey, Dhine, do you know what grade Liam Kelly is in?" I asked. I saw him tense.

"Down the hall to the left. Locker 264." He shut his door and went the exact opposite direction, even though the main doors were the other way. I wonder why he didn't want to see Liam. I walked over to the locker. I saw a boy there. He was about mid height. He had this light brown hair. It was a little wavy a the tips. He turned around and I did a double take. His skin was so clean and he looked so clean he looked a little like a girl.

You could tell from his body he was a boy but his face… man, that was amazing!

"Are you Liam Kelly?" I asked. He pointed at himself. I nodded.

"You know my name?" he asked in disbelief. Okay sure he was in Mace's grade, a freshman, but I knew a ton of people here.

"Yep. Did you write the newspaper?" I asked with a smirk. He triumphatly grinned.

"Yes I did. Did you like it?" he asked excitedly. Poor thing. Too bad I was going to have to tell him to stop.

"Yeah, I did, but I got yelled at by the principal. So I need you to stop for a few weeks okay?" I asked. At least it wasn't forever. His face was excited but then it fell. "Sorry. I think it was really funny though. It's just that I'm going to get expelled if it happens again-"

"Then why'd you say I could start up again in a few weeks?" he asked.

"Because I'm sure the principal will forget after a month or two," I replied just as smoothly. I'll let this kid do his thing in a few months.

"I'll have something really good for you then," he said with a smile. I smiled back. This kid was nice on the inside… or was that to people he liked?

He waved bye to me as I left and I waved back. I should have watched where I was going. I walked right into a certain someone.

That certain someone being Zach.

He grabbed my hand and led me somewhere.

"Zach, let go!" I said. His grip was really starting to hurt. He kept his death grip on my hand.

"Zach, I swear I will scream," I said. I knew he knew it was a bluff. I never scream. Before I could say anything else I was thrown into a closet. It was dark.

"Zach, what the hell-" He smashed his lips onto me, much to my struggle. Finally I was able to push away (well it was more like I dropped down to the ground so he couldn't kiss me). I crawled to the door. I was about to turn the handle when he grabbed me around my waist and pulled me back. I moved my head up so he wouldn't be able to kiss me.

My eyes widened. I felt something moist on my neck.

"God, you have no idea how much I miss you," he murmured into my neck.

I slapped him.

"Zach, we are over. Done. Let me out."

"Nope."

Just as he was about to kiss me again the door opened. It was Kyle. He had murder in his eyes. I think he saw my eyes all watery because he grabbed Zach by the back of the shirt and pulled him off of me.

"Leave. Her. Alone," Kyle said. Barely containing his anger. I knew Kyle wasn't much of the hitting type, so seeing him like this scared me.

"Make me," Zach said, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

Kyle raised his fist, snatching Zach by the front.

"KYLE DON'T!" I screamed. They both looked at me.

"Don't," I whispered before breaking out into tears.

I could count how many times I've cried on one hand.

That was all when my dad left.

So crying about something not concerning my family… was concerning.

I felt Kyle put his arms around me.

"I'm sorry," he whispered into my ear. I buried my head in the crook of his neck and bawled. It was embarrassing. But I didn't want them fighting. I heard footsteps go away. I knew Zach left.

Why had he done that? He doesn't do that.

Zachary Goode was still a mystery to me.

Kyle pulled away.

"Are you okay?" he asked. His voice was so soft, so caring. I nodded and hugged him. I didn't care if we were sitting and we were really awkwardly hugging. It just felt good. He gave me a squeeze back.

"Grant's going to kill me if we don't start heading back," Kyle said. I smiled. He was trying to lighten the mood.

"Plus Macey said something to me about sizing?" he asked. My face fell.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his eyes searching my face.

"Mace said something about sizing?" I asked him. He nodded his head. She must've bought him a tux or something.

"You're in for it now," I said sighing. He laughed.

"It can't be that bad," he said.

"OH it can!" I fired back. It could be real bad.

We got up off the ground and started walking out. We got out of the building and started walking home. After about halfway he grabbed my hand. I smiled back at him.

We got to my house and we walked in. Mace was right there on the step waiting for us.

"Took you long enough! What were you making out in a closet?!" she demanded. I stiffened. Kyle squeezed my hand before letting it drop. We took off our shoes and walked into the dining room.

"Way to come, dude," Grant said smirking on the couch. Mace gave Kyle a black tux with a light green sash. Wow, she had everything planned out.

"Now go change in the bathroom!" Mace ordered. He went off to the bathroom to change. "I think I got the right size," Mace said. Whoa, Mace might have a slip up? Never happen.

Kyle came back in and the tux looked pretty good on him. The sleeves were just a little long.

"That's a pretty good guess," Mace said complementing herself. I rolled my eyes.

"Uh, how do I look?" Kyle asked.

"Spin," Mace ordered. He did as told.

"Looks good," Mace said. If Mace says it, then it is.

"That wasn't that bad," Kyle muttered. Grant laughed. Mace had a 'excuse me' face on. I laughed like Grant.

He went and changed and came back.

"We have a few hours before the game, want to watch a movie?" Grant asked. There were a chorus of 'yeahs' or as much as a chorus 3 people can make.

He threw in G-Force (I thought it was cute and funny) and we watched the movie.

I fell asleep with a smile during the middle of it.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I'm getting reviews for Kammie so I guess this will be a Kammie fic! If you don't want that then just tell me.

Question answering!

Yeah, Kyle likes her (which is made obvious in this chapter) and Grant likes him. He said something at lunch or something like that to make him like her.

If you have a question you can ask or I can PM you. So Review! C:


	12. the game

I was shaken awake by Kyle. He was blushing. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and looked around. Grant and Mace were cracking up at something.

"What did I miss?" I sleepily asked.

"Nothing," Kyle replied too quickly. I raised my eyes but didn't think nothing of it.

"Five minutes until the game, Cam," Grant said getting up.

"Don't forget to wear white. Wait, what am I saying?! I'll get your clothes ready for you," Mace got up and ran to my room. For some reason, they always do a white out at this school for homecoming. I really wanted to wear black but Mace wouldn't let me. Kyle slipped off of the couch and grabbed his backpack and walked to the bathroom. I sighed and got up and ran up the stairs.

"Here you go," Mace said lying the clothes on the bed.

"Hey, Mace. What were you guys laughing about?" I asked. She turned red and burst out laughing.

"Kyle- Kyle's face! Your hand, your hand was-," she couldn't even finish she was laughing so hard. It didn't make any sense to me.

"-your hand was, (cracks up) your hand was "downstairs"," and she cracked up like crazy. I blushed. My hand was, WHAT?!?!

"I'll pretend I never told you," she said, laughing out of my room. I was beat red. I'm not sure I could go out there I was so embarrassed.

I slipped on my clothes. It was a plain white shirt and some white sofes. Then she had white sweatpants, and a white sweatshirt for me. She had everything. I was amazed at how this girl could have this much clothes.

I went back downstairs. And Grant and Kyle were playing something in the kitchen. I went in and they were both playing paper football. I laughed. Grant was holding a mug with some thing dark while moving back and forth. He was going to spill.

"DAMNIT!" Yep, he spilled.

"Touchdown!" Kyle yelled.

"Dude, no goal. I got a black dilemma."

"Yeah, but it's not like you could have stopped it from being a touchdown because you can't touch it," Kyle said back. "Now let me shoot my field goal!"

"Grant you spilt on your shirt!" we all heard that screech and winced.

"Sorry, Macey-"

"Get changed!"

Reluctantly he ran back up the stairs to quickly change. He came back down in a new white shirt with a heart on the sleeve.

"Grant, what's that?" I asked almost cracking up.

"It's a stupid valentine's day dance shirt. The only 'almost' plain shirt I have," he grumbled. "Just get in the car!" we laughed. Grant's convertible finally came from Nebraska. It was hilarious. The first day he came back and it was there, he spent the rest of the day washing it and kissing it, like a mother to a baby.

We all hopped in and went to the game. We were sort of late. The star-spangled banner was being sung right now so we were behind schedule. We went to the gate and paid for our ticket then went in. I totally thought Grant should go out for football, but he didn't' want to.

He'd be a great fullback.

We walked in and the first kick was about to happen. The ref blew the whistle and our guys went charging. Our kicker, I think his name was Corbin, kicked the ball and it went sailing. Wow, we have a good punter. The other guys got it at about their 10 yard zone, and one of our guys went flying into him. They flew back about 3 feet. That's going to hurt in the morning.

From the start we were kicking the crap out of them. It was only about 30 seconds into the game! Grant went left to the bleachers because some boys kept on yelling his name. I was assuming they were his friends. Wow, Grant has friends! Mace looked bored and went up by Grant. I was about to follow but then I saw how packed it was. Whoa, when did we have this many students? I stopped and turned.

Kyle almost bumped into me but stopped. He raised his eyebrow. I pointed at the crowd and he laughed. So we just stood up against the bleachers. Then the team started moving down to the left right in our way.

"Want to go on the other side?" Kyle asked. See, our (home) bleachers are divided into 2. There was one side then the entrance, then another side. The high school usually claimed the left so it was jam packed. The right was more of fans, but it was less crowded, not that it wasn't crowded.

We walked over to the other side and sat in the front row. There were pretty good seats. We were at about the 40. The mad dogs had the ball and were on our 20. When did they get down there? They were in their huddle and they clapped and got ready. The QB started yelling things so loud I could hear him. They called it and the ball snapped. The QB faked a throw and then ran back. Our guys were desperately trying to sac the kid. He threw the ball into the end zone but he missed the guy. It went sailing into the fence. I could hear the students all laugh. It wasn't that funny. It was now 4th & 20. They only had one more move.

They put out their specials team and the kicked the ball for a field goal. It was good. So they were up 3 - 0. This time their team kicked the ball to us. Our number 24 got it and started running up the field. Whoa, boy has some speed. He caught it at the 5 and he was already by the 40. around 50 he was tackled. Our side erupted into cheers.

Okay, remember how I said their QB was loud with the callings? Our QB was worse. Jack Nichols was so loud with his calls, there was no way _anyone_ could mess up. The ball snapped and Jack moved back looking for someone open. Then people got by our defense and Jack just chucked it up the left. We were on the 50? He threw it and it was over the 20. No one was back there. Then suddenly a kid popped out of no where, that 24. He went running down and got a touchdown. I sat and stared. How did that kid get there so fast?! Then the announcer guy spoke.

"The Roseville Knights touchdown scored by number 24, Zach Goode!" The left side burst out in cheers. I paled. That was Zach? He was amazing at football. They were going to be calling his name a lot.

It went back and forth, us punting the ball, them punting the ball. We almost scored on every run, but they were doing the same. I thought everyone said we were going to dominate. The score was 49 - 46, their lead. Jack threw the ball up the left side. Zach let it slip right through his fingers, _again._ Maybe it was his off night? For the past few minutes he had been having trouble catching passes.

"And the knights _6th_ fumble made again, by number 24 Zach Goode." There were no cheers. The time ran out and it was half time, the score the same. Both teams went running off the field. I went down and bought a hot chocolate.

"Hi, Cammie!" I looked up and it was Mrs. Goode.

"Oh hi Mrs. Goode," I politely replied.

"It sounds like Zach is having an off night," she said sighing.

"Yeah, he's been dropping a few passes," I replied.

"Do you know where abouts?" she asked me.

"All around the… 40…" I trailed off. She winked at me and went back to helping other people.

Was he distracted by me? I decided to sit in the high school section. Kyle and I went to sit by Grant and Mace.

"The boy toy's having issues tonight," Grant said.

"Whose boy toy is he now?" I asked.

"Yours," Grant replied. I rolled my eyes. Our team ran out. Every one stood up and screamed. I just noticed the cheerleaders. Wow, nothing great. I mean Mace could do better and that says _a lot_.

I saw Zach sneak a glance to where I was sitting and looked back. I grinned. I wasn't sitting there anymore. He shouldn't be distracted anymore.

The coaches were talking and he kept on looking over there. Now he was starting to stare. He whipped his head back at the coach. Should pay attention Goode. Then he started searching the high school section, but then the ref blew the whistle.

The other team came out and punted the ball to us. Zach caught it and started running up the sides. He made it to about the 40. Not bad. I saw him look over where I was sitting again. Was this distracting him even more?

They lined up and the snap happened. Jack threw it not so far. No one was there to complete the pass. I saw Zach on the ground with a guy on top of him. Wasn't that some kind of penalty? Zach didn't look like he cared though. He was searching again.

That idiot! He was going to throw the game if he kept on messing up! They gave us 15 yards for defensive obstruction. We were now by their 45 line. We made the first down. The ball snapped and Jack chucked it down the line again. Zach was there but it hit his finger tips and bounced off. He dove for it and completed the pass. Well at least he caught it. The coach was on him right away to get his head in the game. Zach was having a hard enough time. Zach just shook his head and ran back into the line.

"I think he's looking for you," Kyle whispered into my ear.

"Do you think I should talk to him?" I asked back.

"Go at the end of the quarter," he replied. We went back to the game. The score was 55 - 52. Our specials team was having a bad time punting. We had to call up our JV kicker because Corbin hurt his ankle or something. With 1:11 left in the game we were at their 10 yard line. Jack was shouting out things, finally the ball snapped. They killed off some time, trying to get a guy open. Suddenly Zach cut in and he had an opening. Jack threw it and Zach finally made the catch. Everyone around me stood up and cheered.

Zach was getting patted on the back by some of his teammates. He looked over where I was sitting.

Yep, he was looking for me. Was I really that big of a distraction.

"And finally Roseville Knights number 24, Zach Goode gets a touchdown!" our announcer guy said excitedly. How many fumbles did he have? Like 12? He probably should've been pulled out of the game, but whatever.

The buzzer rang as soon as the punt started. The kick was good. The two teams retreated back to their side. We were now up 55 - 59. I ran down the stairs. Zach again was dazing off. The coach finished up.

"Zach!" I yelled. His head snapped over to me. He quickly jogged over to me.

"What's up?" he asked. I could tell he was relieved.

"What's up with the fumbles?" I asked. I really wanted to tell him to focus!

"I can't focus," he said exhaustedly. I could tell he was having trouble.

"I'll go back to where I was sitting, but you better not drop so many passes," I said while backing away. I saw his head snap up and I saw a little red.

He gave me a thumbs up and ran out to talk with the guys.

I called Kyle down and we went back to the spot we were sitting earlier. I saw Zach check to see if I was over there. Then he returned his attention back to the field.

"What did you tell him?" Kyle asked.

"Too focus," I replied.

"Nothing to lead him on?"

"Nope."

For the rest of the game Zach did good. We ended up winning 73 - 62. DOMINATION.

Now all that was left was the dance.

Great.


	13. not good party

Everyone went home to get a good night's sleep. The dance was tomorrow and from what I heard a lot of people were going to it. We dropped Kyle off and Grant drove back home.

When we got home there were a lot of cars parked outside, probably 20 cars up and down the street and both sides. Grant went down the drive way and slammed on the brakes. There were people walking right in front of us. He honked.

"Pedestrians have the right of way!" the guy shouted. It was a senior from school. Why was he here? Grant got out of the car.

"Not if you're on fucking private territory," he shouted.

"Grant?" the kid asked shocked. I saw Grant walk over there. I rolled my eyes and got out of the car and walked around to the driver's seat. I didn't want to see what was about to happen. Mace was doing her nails as if nothing was going on.

"Hey, bro. I'm gona park it," I told him. Grant just waved me off. I got in and opened the garage door, then I drove down into it. I shut the garage door. Mace went in but I made sure there were no kids sneaking in. Just as I thought, a boy slid under the door on a skateboard just as it was about to close. I opened the garage door leading out and pointed at the kid, then the door. He got up and walked out. I shut the door and locked it. Mace better be locking things up there.

I made sure no one could get in from the garage then walked upstairs.

"I'm home!" I yelled.

"Hi dear! Can you do a favor for me and double check I got all of the windows on the main floor?"

"Sure!" At least my mom was smart. She was going to make sure no kids were going to end up in our house tomorrow. Because I didn't want to wake up to having some kid on my bedroom floor.

It's happened before.

Let's say the kid didn't show up for a week at school because of some 'men' in my household. He got to stay at the hospital instead.

I went to the work room and gym first. The windows were all locked and the curtains drawn. I locked the doors, just in case they were able to get in the window somehow. The living room should be fine. My mom was going to be in there all night. I didn't bother with the main door, there was a little chime that went off every time it was opened. Okay, I have an over protective brother and you wonder what kind of father I have? He's worse.

"Where's dad?" I yelled to mom from the other side of the house.

"He's at the party," she replied. I gulped. Great. My dad was going to humiliate me and Grant was going to kill every person there who laughs at him. This was just perfect.

I didn't care about the kitchen because my mom would probably be hanging out there too. I ran up the stairs. Mace's room was shut, signaling that she was in there. I didn't care about Grant's room because he _had_ no window; I went to my parent's room and locked the window. Then I went to my room. All the windows were locked and I should be good. I opened my door and some kid was in there. I tried to scream but he put his hand around my mouth. I flipped the light on.

"Sh, it's just me Gallagher Girl."

Oh, like that's supposed to help!

"Wut our yew-" he took his hand of my mouth.

"What are you doing in here?" I asked.

"Wanted to talk a little heart to heart," he said. I rolled my eyes. I walked over and shut my door and locked it. Then I went over to shut the drapes.

"5 minute tops," I told him as I flopped on my bed.

"Where should I start?" he asked me. I don't know, he was the one who wanted to talk to me!

"4 minutes 23 seconds," I said counting in my head.

"Okay, I'm really sorry about Tina-" I pointed to the door. I didn't want to talk about that.

"No, okay. I wanted to say thanks for helping me in the game today. You really helped me with my focus." He paused.

"I really like you Cammie and I want another chance." I just looked at him with bored eyes.

"Will you please go to the dance with me tomorrow?" He pulled out a white rose from his letterman's jacket. My eyes widened a fraction. White roses were a signal of truelove. I mean red are plenty nice… but it's hard to find white roses at times like these. They mostly sell the red ones.

I took the rose and put it in the middle of the red ones Kyle had given me.

"Sorry, Zach. Kyle already asked me. Maybe some other time," I responded. Even if I hated his guts, I couldn't turn him down. How sad is that?

"How about dinner then? Dinner on Sunday?"

"I'll think about it," I replied. I would have to think all of this over. I mean, he pulls something like that on me and he thinks I'll go out to dinner with him? That's weird. Plus Kyle and I… well I don't know what we were but I knew we were something.

And what about the whole Tina thing? I mean, that he did do. There was no way he wasn't guilty. He was going to explain himself… but I didn't want to hear it.

The only way that was going to end was badly.

I noticed he was in my room still. I looked up. "Yeah?"

"Do you want to come to the party?" he asked.

"Your drunken frat party? No thanks. I don't want to get hit up." He stared at me with wide eyes. Well, his house was making a lot of noise and I'm sure things would be broken… plus I don't really trust the boys at our school...

"Your dad and brother are there. You're not going… nothing is going to happen to you." I thought about it. He did have a point.

"Bex is there."

"I'll get ready." he chuckled. I ran to my closet and took off my white sweats.

"Holy- Give me a warning!" Oops. He was still in here.

"It's not like I'm not wearing shorts, Zach," I said as if it were no big deal. I guess it was. I slipped on some gray sweats instead and put my hair into a lose ponytail.

"I'm going to hop the balcony," he said grinning.

"What's gotten you into such a good mood?" I asked him.

"You're ass." My jaw dropped. He softly put his hand on my jaw and shut it.

"You are a fucking sexist!" I yelled grabbing a pillow and hitting him. He laughed. Once he was out of my room I locked my balcony door.

What the hell was I going to do about Zach and Kyle?

~*~*~*~

I walked out the front door and walked to Zach's. The door was opened. Okay, what was he inviting the whole neighborhood? I walked on in with my hands in my pockets.

"IT'S THE MORGAN GIRL!" a guy yelled. Suddenly everyone was pouring in from upstairs, downstairs, outside, you name it.

"Cammie!" Bex yelled. She ran up and hugged me. There was some wolf whistles. "They're just jealous," Bex said rolling her eyes.

Naw. Our school is just full of perverts.

We walked outside, seeing no one was out there. There was a bonfire going on and all necessities for smores. I smiled and I put a marshmallow on a stick and started roasting it. No one was out here. I chuckled as I thought of what would happen if some of the branches caught fire or if the smoke started to burn the woods.

That would be _bad_.

I looked over and Mace's room was black. She went to bed already? I looked downstairs and the curtains were all pulled. Wow, mom really didn't want anyone coming in. Our house looked kind of scary.

"There's my favorite girl," I heard a voice call. Bex glared at him. I forgot, she still hates him.

"Hi, Zach," she replied drily.

"Sorry, Bexy, but Cammie's the one for me!" he told her as he came around to put his arms around my neck. I rolled my eyes.

"Get lost or I'll go get Grant," Bex threatened.

"Cammie and I will just have a little fun while you're gone," he laughed. My eyes widened. Bex flipped out her cell phone.

"Are you drunk?!" I exclaimed turning around to face him. He wasn't at all focused.

"You're telling me you were serving beer?! The school's going to have your head Zach!" Bex yelled.

"Grant? I need you outside. K, bye," she said closing her phone. "Better run, Goode."

"Like snow white? No way, man." Yep, he was drunk. I might as well try to save him.

"Hey, Zach, where'd you get the beer?" I asked him. I saw Bex's jaw drop. I winked. She threw her hands up in the air.

"Some seniors brought it," he smiled to me. "Want to go get some?"

"Uh, Bex, let's go 'have some fun'," I told her. She caught my vibe.

"You know, I am a little stressed from a certain Goode's horrible football play," she muttered.

"I'm not that bad!" he defended himself.

"How many did you have?" I asked him.

"Only one. There isn't enough for round 2."

Where are the parents at times like this?

"Go downstairs, and ask a boy named Tom."

"Be right back!" I cheerily replied before going off.

When I said I didn't want to go to a drunken frat party I didn't know I was going to be so close guessing the right thing.

"You aren't serious about him are you?" Bex asked me as we went inside to stop them all from getting in trouble.

There were big noises from downstairs. That's where everyone was. I walked down.

Right into the principal.

Shit.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

i didn't really like this chapter but it was needed.

battle between kammie and zammie! review! C:


	14. deals and dances

"Ms. Morgan, what are you doing here?" the principal asked (okay he has a name. Mr. Principal. No just kidding. It's Mr. Sanders, he likes being called Mr. Steve. But I call him principal).

"Figuring out who was selling beer so I could tell them to knock it off before anyone called you," I explained. He didn't look convinced.

"I got a phone call from some _parents_ that there was alcohol being drunk. I come over and everyone's drunk."

"You can do that alcohol test thing on me, sir. I haven't drunken a drop."

"Cammie! Did you get that beer?" Zach came stumbling in.

Way to go Zach.

Smooth move.

"I will put down every single one of your names," principal continued, "even if you _haven't_ drunk." I stared at him. Then I fixed my glare on Zach. It was his fault for getting me in trouble.

"What?" he asked. Everyone cracked up. Some boys took Zach in a head lock and pulled him into the drunk group.

Peer pressure much. I sighed and went to the principal.

"'Tom' is the one who started this," I told him. I closed my eyes. This was going to be a tough one to explain to my parents. "Where do I have to sign so I can leave?" I asked.

"You really didn't have anything to do with this did you, Ms. Morgan," he told me. I looked up at him. Was he going to be nice to me? I can't trust him.

"No," I replied slowly, watching his every move.

"How about this: we'll make a deal." I looked at him.

"What kind of deal?" I asked curious.

"You and Ms. Baxter have to do an after school activity, and I won't tell your parents and this won't show up on anyone of your records." Wow, wasn't a bad deal. I looked at Bex; she nodded.

"Deal," I told him.

"Excellent."

~*~*~*~

Bex slept over at my house, considering it was so late. She didn't want her parents to come pick her up only to find her at a party with drunk high school-ers. The football team was in for it now. Almost all of the players were down in that basement. If the principal reports them, our football team that had a chance at winning state would be a no-go. But Mr. Steve was starting to soften up. I wonder why.

Well we stayed up late watching movies and eating popcorn. Suddenly there was a huge thump on the glass. Bex and I literally jumped in the air, popcorn flying everywhere. I guess that's what happens in intense moments. I got up and went to the window and pulled back the curtain. There stood Grant. I gave him the 'what the hell are you doing out there?' signal. He gave me the 'unlock the fucking door' signal. I went to the kitchen and let him in.

"What were you doing outside?" I asked him, microwaving water so I could make a pre-packaged hot chocolate (hey, I'm just not as amazing as he is.

"Someone locked everything on me," he said annoyed. I took out the hot water and poured it in a mug with the powder. I mixed it up for him then handed it over.

"Thanks, sis." He took a sip then spit it out, all over our just wiped table.

"What the hell did you put in this?!" he demanded. I did a double take.

"What's wrong with it?" I asked taking a sip. Uh, yuck. That didn't taste like hot chocolate. From my face Grant saw I knew nothing. Then there was recognition on his face.

"Did Mace do the dish-"

"Yeah." You see, Mace hates doing dishes so she doesn't exactly… complete the task.

"You better take out all of the plates too," Grant told me as I started pulling out cups. I glared at him while I pulled everything she touched out. I grabbed a rag and cleaned up his mess even. He just leaned back in the chair and 'supervised' me. Bex came walking in.

"I'm tired, you want to go to bed?" she asked me.

"Bex?!" she turned her head to Grant.

"Oh, hey Grant."

"Uh.. Uh.. Hi!" I almost laughed there. My brother was so hopeless. He was bright red just at the sight of her.

"Let's go to bed, Bex," I said dragging her out of the kitchen to save my brother the embarrassment. We went up to stairs.

"What do you see in him?" I muttered.

"What do I see are you kidding me?!" she exclaimed once she shut the bedroom door. "What is there not to like about him! He's so amazing! He's sweet, over protective, nice, muscular, dreamy-eyed-"

"ALRIGHT," I loudly said, trying to get her to shut up. She sat on my bed and glared.

"What activity are you thinking of taking?" she asked me. I raised my eyebrow. "So we don't get in trouble-"

"I was thinking tennis or cross-country or something. You know, sporty?" I said. She shook her head.

"Wouldn't it be hilarious if we got stuck in cheerleading with those dopes? Oh man that would be HORRIBLE," Bex laughed. I smiled. That _would_ be horrible. Luckily we were able to choose so we should be fine. I turned off the light and crawled into bed.

"Where am I supposed to sleep?" Bex called from the darkness.

"Oh, I heard about you and your sleeping habits. I do not want to be kicked literally out of my bed by a crazy Bex," I giggled. I felt someone drop right in front of me.

"DEAL WITH IT," she said right into my face. With that I fell asleep, with Bex sleeping on top of the covers, bound to kick me off somehow.

~*~*~*~

I woke up cramped. I groaned as I got up. Something wasn't right. Underneath me wasn't springy. I looked down and felt it. It was my carpet. I looked up to see Bex all over my bed. I giggled and pulled out my cell phone to take a picture.

Snipped.

I woke her up to go downstairs for breakfast. We both went down the stairs to the kitchen. Grant was already up and had pancakes made.

"YOU COOK?!" Bex yelled. Grant startled did a double take.

"Is there a problem?" he asked worriedly.

"WILL YOU MARRY ME?" Bex laughed. Grant went beat red. Before Bex could see he went back to making pancakes.

"Just another thing to add," I muttered to Bex.

"I told you! He's bloody brilliant!" she laughed. I saw Grant look down to the pancakes. It would take a while for him to get over that one.

I grabbed a pancake. Well I might as well enjoy embarrassing Grant, I mean he makes sure I don't look at a boy unless he's 'approved'.

"So you excited for the dance?" I asked her. I saw Grant look down but try to listen in.

"Oh I don't know. It's always the same. Only I'll be going with a hot date," she smiled. I tried to contain my laughter. This could get better.

"So you and Grant, huh?" Mace came walking in.

"What a hot couple."

"MACEY," Grant started out.

"Really? You think so? I hope so. I hope it all works out," Bex sighed.

I think Bex was in on our embarrassment plan. She winked.

Yep, she was.

Mace catching up with all of this went on. "Don't you think you could do better than Grant though? I mean he is muscular but he has no brains or," I saw Grant almost crush the plate full of pancakes.

"Here.. You go… guys," he barely managed to mutter out with a fake smile.

"Oh, HI Grant," Mace said trying to 'cover up'.

We ate breakfast in silence. I couldn't take it anymore. I laughed. I laughed so hard dad came out from the work room. Then he laughed because everyone was looking at me like I was high or something. Pretty soon everyone was laughing (well Grant was fake laughing, not understanding what was going on). I got up and put my plate in the sink.

"You're an awesome brother," I told Grant ruffling his hair as I walked on by. I saw him put it back in place out of the corner of my eye.

"What time is it?" Mace asked. She always slept in on Saturdays. She just does, no idea why.

"2:35," Grant replied checking the stove. I stared at Bex. We over slept that much too?!

"The dance is in 3 hours?! Why didn't someone wake me up!" Mace shrieked as she ran upstairs. "LET'S GO CAMMIE!" she yelled at me. I sighed. Bex raised an eyebrow questioning everything.

"Mace gets-" she nodded. No words were needed with Mace. We walked upstairs to Mace's room. She already had everything laid out.

"Cammie, hop in the shower. 20 minutes tops," she commanded me. I grabbed a towel and went to the shower.

I heard her order Bex to do something. Sucker, she had to prep with Mace. I took a quick shower and got out.

"You're 4 minutes 11 seconds late!" Mace yelled at me as she sat me down on a chair. She started blow drying my hair.

"Shower. Now. Baxter." Bex went running off. Ha ha ha. I bet she wishes she didn't sleepover now.

Mace kept blow drying my hair.

"Ugh, Cammie we are going to have to cut your hair soon." I grabbed my hair. I liked it! "You have so many split ends it's crazy!" she told me as she removed my hands. Bex came running in with a towel in her hair.

"Good, you're early. You can just sit on the bed while I finish up with Cammie," she ordered Bex. Bex did as told.

"So you excited to get to dance with _Kyle_ tonight?" Mace asked me teasingly. I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, Mace. I'm dying to get a chance to dance with him. He's so amazing. Oh, did I tell you about his amazing basketball skills? I could die right there. And the way he looks, wow. And those piercings, they are so cool, it just proves how tough he is," I said. It was all sarcastic. I heard a thump from the door and then footsteps.

We all looked at each other and I opened the door.

Aw~ there was a teddy bear holding a rose.

A white one.

Oops.

~*~*~*~

"So Zach heard you saying stuff about Kyle, who cares," Bex said. I felt kind of bad.

"It's not like he hadn't invited you to talk to him only for you to walk in on him making out with another girl," Mace said straightening my hair.

"I think it's your fault for ruining Cammie's hair," Bex pointed out. "I mean you straighten it then curl it? That's got to be mucho damage."

"You are going way off track from the conversation," Mace annoyed said to Bex. Wow, she has guts talking to an upper classmen like that. But then she does it all the time to Grant and me.

That conversation ended there as Bex and Mace fought about hair, then they started talking about treatments. I rolled my eyes. This was getting no where.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"About 3:30," Bex replied. Mace went full attention to my hair.

Bex got up and started blow drying her hair, talking to Mace about Grant. Yeah, of course Mace knows everything about guys. I'm the sheltered one who doesn't care. She's the one who knows all but thinks all guys are not right… for her at least.

Finally my hair was all straight, and Mace made me put on my dress now. I put it on and went up to the closet door (Mace's door is made of glass, which is perfect for her.

"You look… stunning," Bex finished. Did I really look okay?

"Wow, I amaze myself sometimes," Mace complimented. She guided Bex over to the chair and started to work her magic. She curled her hair (didn't straighten it) and made her go put on her dress.

"Uh, my dress is at home," Bex said when Mace told her. Mace huffed and went to her closet and pulled out a blue dress. There was no way it would fit Mace but it _would_ fit Bex.

"Wear this then," she said, forcing Bex into the dress. It was a blue shimmery gown. It went to about mid calf and it was so loose and it looked really cute. It was a strapless one so Bex got _real_ hesitant.

"What if it falls down or something?" she asked Mace as Mace worked to get it on her.

"You'll be fine, just wear the damn thing!" Mace snapped. Bex did as told. She may be one of the toughest girls in school, but everyone knows not to mess with Mace when it comes to fashion. She put in on and it looked beautiful on her. It fit her perfectly.

"Ha, I'm amazing at ordering sizes," Mace told herself.

"You bought this for me?" Bex asked with disbelief in her voice.

"No," Mace snapped. "But I'll give it to you." Translation: yes I did.

"Come," she ordered me back to the chair. She put my hair into a loose ponytail making that some hair fell from the high pony. Then she curled it and put bobby pins in it. I had no idea how it was going but from Bex's loss of words I'm sure it looked amazing.

Then Mace threw on a dress and curled her hair. Just by curling her hair she looked like a model. I swear. This girl could _not _be related to me.

"Time," she asked as she did her mascara.

"5:23," Bex replied.

"SHIT! I haven't even done Cammie's makeup!" she grabbed me and sat me down in the chair. Dang, I thought I was going to skip the make up this time. She whipped out her make up and started putting everything on. The doorbell went off.

"Crap, Bex go tell Kyle it will be a few seconds," Mace commanded Bex. She went away.

"And you are done!" she said wiping something off my face. She wheeled me around to the mirror. Wow. I actually looked okay. I had a little blush and not much mascara or eye shadow. I had a little lipstick on and it was pink. "Now go," she ordered me. I got up and walked down, tying to look elligant.

"Hey Cammie," Kyle said as we watched me descend the stairs. I smiled back. He had on his tux and had flowers on his shoulder. He handed over the flowers. This time they were all different sorts of flowers. They smelt good. I went to the kitchen and put them in a vase. Then I went back to the hall. My dad was there.

"Have fun," he smiled. We hugged and he kissed my head. "Have her home by 10," he said glancing at Kyle. He nodded. With that Kyle lead me out of the house.

And to a silver mustang.

"Nice ride," I smiled. He opened the door and I got in.

"I'm afraid to drive it to school everyday. Kiddies would probably key it," he said with a smirk, then shut the door. We went around to the other side. He pulled into the drive and turned around. Then he sped off to the school.

"I see you're a speeder," I said, watching him go 40 in a 25.

"15 over isn't where the cops get you," he replied as we turned onto the main road. Whoa, I've never gone this way before… then again I always go in from the back of the school. The speed went up to 35, he stayed at 40. I think he knew I didn't want to get pulled over.

At least not tonight.

We talked as we got to the school, when he pulled in I'm sure everyone's head whipped our way. Because of his parking pass we got a space in the front row.

"If you bought a pass why don't you drive? Just cause you don't want it to get keyed?"

"I need the exercise," he said. I laughed. He did not. He got out and came around to my door. He offered his hand and I took it.

"Such a gentleman," I teased.

"My mom made sure I did this all and I had to practice with her so.. Here we are," he explained. I laughed again. His mom made him practice? And with her?

We walked into the school.

"Reservation for…." a boy trailed off. Yeah, it was sad. Our school you had to reserve your name so they knew who was coming. If you weren't on the list… too bad.

"Heag," Kyle said.

"Have fun," the guy said. Then he winked at me. I smiled back. I wasn't going to stare down on him…

We walked in and it was already packed.

"Ugh, who invited you?" Tina came over and looked me up and down. "Hey… Kyle? What are you doing with _her_?" wow, she thinks she's going to have the upper hand when she doesn't even know his name?

"Cammie's my date," he said holding my hand intertwined in his in her face. Wait, when did he grab my hand?! He was smooth!

"Icky Cammie? You could do way better. I mean your car _shows_ how much richer you must be." Ahhhh. She was out for his car. That's a little sad.

"Don't you have your boy toy Zach to get to?"Kyle asked her. She recoiled a little.

"Zach? Oh, he isn't here yet. I was wondering if I could spend the time waiting with _you_ though," Tina said with a flirtatious smile. I was getting sick of this. I sort of shook my hand out of Kyle's and walked over to the refreshment table. I grabbed some punch and someone put their arms around me.

"Think you were going to get rid of me that easily?" Kyle asked. I smiled.

"Punch?" he shook his head. I shrugged and drank it. We walked over to some tables.

"Do you want to dance?" he asked me as a slow song came on.

"I don't dance," I replied politely. He looked at me with this weird face. It was saying like 'come on' or something. He grabbed my hands and pulled me up.

"I'll teach you," he said dragging me to the dance floor. Ack, this is not want I wanted to do!

We were on the side when I got a tap.

"Hey Gallagher Girl." I turned my head to see a certain boy named Zach.

"Hi Zach," I wearily replied. I didn't want a fight to break out between these two.

"Do you mind if I borrow Cammie for a few songs?" Zach asked Kyle.

Kyle leant down in my ear. "I'll let him teach you. Then we'll dance," he smirked and spun me into Zach.

"Only a few songs," Kyle nicely replied. Zach smirked.

"Not if you don't want to leave," he mumbled to me.

"If you haven't noticed I don't dance," I told him. I do know how to dance. I make it seem I don't so people don't ask me.

"Then you'll just have to follow my lead," he smirked. Then he whisked me onto the dance floor.

~*~*~*~

It was fun dancing with him, to honestly tell you. He was very good at dancing. We didn't talk, which was probably for the better.

Kyle tapped my shoulder after a few songs and I went back to Kyle. With Kyle I more or less talked with him instead of dance. He lead me outdoors.

"Having fun, Morgan?" he asked me.

"Yeah. Do you want to dance?" I asked him. Zach's dancing just made me want to dance. Amazing. Kyle grinned.

"I thought you'd never ask." He lead me back inside and to the dance floor. We were dancing before I even knew. He was so graceful it amazed me.

"Do you dance?" I asked him. I didn't think it was possible to be as good as he was if he didn't.

"Nope," he replied, pulling me in closer. A girl split her juice right where I was standing before. He pulled me away again. Some boy tipped his drink.

"Are people out to get me?" I asked him as we weaved through people. He laughed.

"Some people are jealous of your mad dancing skills and want you to leave," he replied as if it were obvious. "But I guess we're going to have to go anyways," he whispered pulling me close.

"Why?" I asked into his chest. I was having fun.

Plus I might want one more dance with Zach…

"It's almost 10. You know curfews and fathers," he said trailing off. He let go of me and lead me to the doors.

"Have a nice evening," the door guy said rejected. I think he was hoping I would save him a dance.

Kyle opened the door and closed it, then ran around to his side.

"Time flies when you're having fun," I mumbled. He smiled.

"You have a good time?"

"Yeah," I said with a smile. Kyle went speeding off. I rolled down the window and stuck my hand out.

"Do you want to go for a drive sometime?" Kyle asked seeing my pleasure with the wind.

"Yeah, sure," I agreed. He pulled into the drive way.

"Zach has 1 on me, but I hope this makes up for it," I looked at him and he pulled me into a kiss. It was gentle and nice. I pulled away smiling.

"I'll take you to the door-"

"Okay."

We walked to the door and I went in.

"Thanks for tonight. It was great," I said smiling. He waved and I shut the door. I heard his car go off. I went to Mace's room to return her dress. Then I went to my room and threw on some clothes. Then I snuggled into bed.


	15. our after school activity

I got this idea from a review from DiVaGiRl13. It worked out so here it is! (the last chapters lead up to this) :)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I spent my Sunday lounging. Just relaxing. Too bad it ended so soon. I took a nap and it was already morning by the time I woke up. I sighed and threw on my uniform. I looked at the clock. I was ahead of schedule for once! I went down stairs and Mace and Grant were finishing up breakfast. Grant got up and put cereal in a bowl for me. I ate while they started cleaning up.

"5 minutes and we have to leave," Grant told me as he went upstairs to go change. I looked over at Mace and she was sitting there drinking her coffee. She drinks way to much coffee.

"Oh butt off," she said as if reading my mind. I stood there, mouth open about to take in cereal. "Shut your mouth, it's disgusting," she told me. I quickly put my cereal in and closed my mouth. After a while, Grant was ready and I was done with my cereal. We walked to school in a record amount of time. When I got there I saw Bex at the front doors. She usually never waits there. I walked up to her.

"What's up?" I asked as I got her to follow me in.

"Cammie, it's horrible." I looked at her. What could be as bad as Saturday night? "The only after school activity left is cheerleading!"

I felt my mouth drop. Bex shut it for me. How many more times was this going to happen today.

"Practice starts right after school," she told me as we walked to my locker.

"There has got to be some mistake, there is no way only cheerleading is open," I said thinking about the other sports. "All the sports are full, and so are the after school activities." My mind raced, trying to find some way out of this.

"What about chess, or _anything_ except CHEERLEADING!" I exclaimed as we got to my locker. Dhine looked at me.

"You're doing cheerleading?" he asked me. I looked at him, NOT happy. He laughed with his friend next to him. "I'll go to all the football games for you!" he said shutting his locker. I blushed. This was not something I wanted to get out.

But then again if Dhine gets a hold of it I only have 10 minutes before the whole school knows.

I hit my head on my locker.

"This isn't going to go well is it?" Bex asked. I looked at her giving her the best 'NO DUH' face I could manage.

We grabbed my books had head off to Mr. Robinson's classroom.

When we got in Mr. Robinson called us over.

"Are you sure you girls want to do _cheerleading_?" he asked us.

"We have no choice," Bex replied dully.

"What happened?" he asked us. Bex and I exchanged a glance. It was probably going to get out anyways.

"They were serving beer at a neighbor's party, a kid who goes here. We were going to tell them to knock it off but got caught by 'Mr. Excellent'. He knew we didn't do anything so he made a deal that if we did an after school activity it wouldn't go on our records or anything," I explained. He just nodded his head.

"And I went to check what was open and the only thing left was… cheerleading." we both cringed.

"You poor things. Have fun with cheerleading," he smiled and left, leaving Bex and I cursing his name. That's how we found ourselves at the dome after school.

"Why did you-" she looked us up and down and shuddered, "join the cheerleading squad?"

"We have to. DEAL WITH IT," Bex said yelling in her face.

"Ew! You don't have to spit!" the girl said.

"Who are you anyways?" I asked her.

"Cheerleading captain, FOR YOUR INFORMATION," she tried copying Bex. Let's say it wasn't well done and she did a face plant right in front of us.

"Dear Lord SAVE US!" Bex shouted out to no one in particular. We walked on to the other girls.

"So what do we do first?" I asked them.

"Stretch," a girl told me as she went into the splits.

"I can't do that," I quickly said.

"Agreed," Bex chipped in.

"Then learn," another girl said. This was going to be one long semester.

"Alright girls, stretch it out," the 'captain' said. Suddenly girls were bending this way and that.

"Bex," I whispered. I looked over and she was just as horrified. We went over and started stretching out. They moved away from us. One team, yeah no. A few girls stayed behind not caring.

"This is hell," Bex muttered while reaching for her toes.

"Well get used to it. Because we are going to make this program way better." She stopped and straightened and then gave me that look that said I was crazy.

"You're crazy-"

"Yeah I know."

~*~*~*~

After a _THREE HOUR LONG_ practice, Bex came over to my house.

"How'd it go?" Grant asked from the kitchen.

"ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE," Bex replied. She went in there to rant. Ha ha ha. They could be husband and wife.

I went upstairs to change. There was a note on my bed.

'Didn't save the last dance for me Gallagher Girl? That hurts.

Zach.'

I rolled my eyes and crumbled it. I got changed while I heard Bex go on downstairs. I grinned thinking about them. Suddenly I heard them outside my door and they went into Grant's room, probably because mom told them to shut up or go somewhere else. Then I didn't hear anymore voices. I went to my alarm clock and put the music up. Get that out of my head!

Bex came in a few moments later.

"Grant is an amazing kisser."

~*~*~*~

After I got over that whole shock we did our homework. Ack, this cheerleading took up so much time! And only for stretching. Yes, we only stretched for _three hours. Three hours_, people. That's how our cheer squad uses their time.

Well, let me explain the situation.

You understand we practice in the dome, where the football players practice. And because no woman could possibly take this task, we are coachless. PLUS, the football players are practicing while we're doing our crap. So most of the time girls are grinding or something to get the boys attention.

Our school or Perverts and Sluts!

"I don't think our school has ever been this bad," Bex told me. "I guess they're worried all the guys will fall for you. I mean you were dubbed the hottest upperclassmen girl."

Yeah, that's why our school is so worked up. Because a girl is hotter than them, they have to resort to the last thing to do. I mean really guys? Get lives.

After football was done, Kelsey (I guess that was her name) ran over to Jack Nichols with a bottle or water and hung on him like a hoe.

That's girls at our school.

Just because we're private don't let it fool you.

Bex and I grabbed our crap and started out, only to be held up by stinky football players.

"You're seriously doing cheerleading," Zach came out representing the group. It was 2 - 25. very even numbers.

"We have no choice, dropping subject," Bex told him as we tried to get around them. They just created a semi circle. I eyed the fence and Bex got the idea.

"RUN!" I yelled. They stiffened. Zach stayed relax and alert. I guess that's how he saw we were going for the fence. We made it to the fence with a bunch of boys chasing us. LUCKY I think not.

We made it over with a bunch of guys lined up against the fence.

"Bye guys," Bex blew a kiss. They melted right there.

See! It doesn't take much! You don't have to go all out!

"EARTH TO CAMMIE," I looked over to see Bex waving her hands. "I need help with this one," I went over and helped her with her algebra.

This was going to be a VERY long trimester.


	16. cheer squad

I helped Bex with her algebra when Grant came in.

"So I forgot to ask. But what do the uniforms look like?"

Bex and I slowly turned our heads together.

That's when we screamed.

~*~*~*~

"I totally forgot about uniforms," I complained to Macey. Bex left a while ago. We were both scared of uniforms.

"I have the best idea," Macey suddenly said. I looked at her. "I'll go and put in a design for the cheer squad!" I stared at her wide eyed.

"NO!" I yelled running upstairs. This was a disaster. If Macey designed the uniforms, it would just attract _more_ attention. That was not something I wanted to happen. I ran onto my bed and put my head in my knees. I heard a knock and looked up. No one was at my door. I put my head back down, but someone knocked again.

"Grant if this is an idea of a joke it's not funny," I yelled into my knees. I heard someone laugh. It was Zach. I got up and walked to the balcony door.

"What's so funny?" I asked as I swung the door open. He just stood there, leaning on the railing. "If that gives you're screwed," I told him, sending the message to stop leaning on the rail.

"Ah, you can save me," he said jumping up to sit on it. I rolled my eyes.

"What do you want?" I asked. He looked at me with that smirk.

"I heard you were a cheerleader, and I didn't believe it. Then I saw you and Bex over by the cheerleaders and I was shocked. While the other girls were acting like sluts, what were you doing?" he asked me, acting curious. I tried slamming my door, but he caught it and let himself on my bed and sat there.

"Let's have a little heart to heart here," he said smiling. I glared. That didn't go so well last time.

"About what," I said shutting my door and sitting in front of it.

"What do you outfits look like? You know you'll be at all of my games," he told me. I just looked at him.

"You must be so excited for that," I said sarcastically. He straightened up.

"No, actually I am," he said, trying to look and act serious. I didn't buy it.

"What are you after, Zach," I demanded. I wanted to know. I just couldn't figure him out.

"You," he replied. Then he got up and walked out.

I sighed and went to my bed to sleep.

~*~*~*~

I got up and went through the normal morning procedure and I was out the door. I hadn't realized I slept the whole day yesterday, or most of it.

"Earth to Cammie," Mace said waving her hand in front of my face. I looked at her. "Finally, anyways, what do you think of me designing the cheering uniforms?" she asked. I tensed, Grant laughed. "What's so funny, Grant?" Mace asked through grit teeth.

"You? Design the uniforms? No way, they would all look like-" he didn't finish, knowing Macey wouldn't approve.

"Shut up, Grant. No one asked your opinion anyways," she told him. I ran ahead leaving Grant with the mess. I got to the school then slowed down. Kyle was right by the front doors. I wonder what's up? He never waits for me. Or he's never actually been to school on time…

"Hey, Kyle!" I said with a smile as I neared him.

"I heard you were joining the cheerleading squad," he said with disbelief in his eyes. I groaned. Dhine must've told everyone. I hate him.

"Long story short, I have to or I could get kicked out," I said shortly. His eyes widened a fraction but then returned to normal and he grinned.

"So you're a naughty girl now?" he asked me. We went into the school.

"I guess you could say that. I mean I'm getting in enough trouble," I replied. I must be doing something wrong here. Otherwise I wouldn't be getting in so much trouble.

"I have such a bad impact on you," he laughed. I smiled. He did. I went to my locker and pulled out my books.

"Hey, I got to go. After school?" Kyle asked slowly backing away.

"For sure," I said waving. He turned around and left.

"Hey, beautiful," a guy's voice came. I didn't even turn. I didn't want to think he was talking to me. I grabbed my books and shut my locker. I was going to have to turn.

I turned around and the senior QB Jack was blocking my path.

"Excuse me," I said quietly. I didn't want this to get big or anything. I tried sneaking past him but he put his arm in my way and cornered me into my locker. Just my luck.

"Where do you think you're going, babe?" he asked me. This school should teach their boys not to try to get girls these ways. I mean seriously. They kiss you or something and expect you to fall for them.

"Hey, captain, GET OFF MY GIRL," I loud voice came from behind. 'Please not be Kyle, please not be Kyle.' I looked back and it was Zach. Thank God. I wouldn't want Kyle knowing about this. Wait, did Zach just say _his_ girl?

"This your babe, Goode?" Jack asked turning his back to me, but still keeping his arm there.

"Yeah, so _let her go_," Zach said tightly.

"She's a babe and a cheerleader. I think the pattern always went hottest cheerleader with the star QB," Jack said to Zach and glancing at me with a smile. I wanted to just transfer schools.

"Yeah, but we've had history. Plus I can tell you she doesn't even know your name," Zach said smirking. Um, what was that? We've had _history_? I stared at Zach. Why did he always include me in the fights?

"Cammie, there you are!" I heard Bex's voice.

"Look who it is, Rebecca Baxter," Jack said with a smile. Bex glared at him.

"Bex," she coldly stated.

"Goode, she's almost as good as Morgan. Just take her," he said to Zach.

I can tell you Bex doesn't like being called or treated like a thing.

Basically she freaked out at Jack.

I'll spare you the details, but it came out with a bloody Jack. He was shouting something like 'she's psycho!' down the halls while the four of us made our way to the principal's office. Isn't that great? We get in trouble and get out of it. Then we find ourselves back in a mess.

"So tell me again what happened?" Mr. Steve or whatever asked us. Zach, Jack, and Bex all started talking at once. I stayed quiet. Maybe I could get out of this. Trouble just seemed to haunt me. "Alright, alright, one at a time please," Mr. Steve tried to reason again. The 3 shut up for like a second staring at each other before they all started talking at once again.

"Ms. Morgan?" I whipped my head over. I zoned out a little. This thing was a bore.

"Uh, what did you say?" I asked, not really in it.

"What do you think happened?" Oh. Uh, okay.

"Well I was getting my stuff for class then Jack came up and cornered me somewhat into my locker and then Zach came and told him to get off and then they were talking, then Bex came and Jack sort of treated her like an object and Bex took offence to that and so she attacked him and here we are," I said all in one breath.

"Excellent," he replied. WHAT PART OF THAT IS EXCELLENT?! "Ms. Morgan you are dismissed," he waved me off. I quickly got out of the office and bumped into - you guessed it - Kyle.

"What are you doing here?" he asked yawning.

"Getting out of the principal's office, what are you doing sleeping?" I fired right back.

"You know me!" he said yawning while stretching. "What did you get in trouble for now?" he asked.

"Oh, you know the normal hallway fights," I said trying to make it sound like no big deal.

But what guy that likes you doesn't get alarmed at the word 'fights'?

"Fight? What happened are you okay?" he asked immediately worried.

"I'm fine. I wouldn't say the same for Jack though," I said pointing toward the office. The nurse was still tending him while he got scolded by the principal. This school was so different.

"I'll take you to class, make sure nothing else goes on," he said. I knew he was worried, and he was hiding it poorly.

"I won't die," I told him, "go sleep." He wearily looked down the halls and then he hugged me. Aw, he's such a worry rat. "See ya," I said walking down the hall. He walked into the nurse's room.

I grabbed my stuff and made it to the last minute of class. Wow, that was sure a waste of time. I got in with a note and the bell rang. He took the note and waved me off. I left the room. So basically I shouldn't of even went down to class. I sighed and returned to my locker and went to the next class.

~*~*~*~

"I heard you already went to the principal's office today," Grant said eating his sandwich. I rolled my eyes. Things spread way to fast in this school.

"Look, it's not my fault they got into a fight!" I said defending myself. I shouldn't of put it that way because Grant spit out his water and looked at me with his pissed off look.

"WHO?" he snarled. Bex plopped down next to him and he immediately lightened up.

"Hey, Bex!" he said cheerily with a smile. Whoa, mood change.

"I. Absolutely. HATE. Jack Nichols," Bex muttered slamming her fork into her salad. I shut up.

"Are your 2 things related to each other?" Grant asked, looking between a pissed off Bex and a really quiet Cammie. "I will kill him," he muttered standing up.

Bex and I both had to tackle him. I was surprised to see how no one even glanced at us when we took him down. I guess Grant put up a big bad reputation.

"LET'S, think this OVER," I said struggling to keep hold of him.

"Wait, 'til after SCHOOL," Bex said at the same exact time. I don't know which idea Grant compromised with but I'm pretty sure it was Bex's.

"He will die. We can do it together," he said smiling at Bex. She smiled back. I'm assuming they were having a 'moment'. Too bad the bell rang like 2 seconds into it.

"See you guys later," I said immediately getting up. I was about to leave the lunchroom when Jonas caught up to me.

"Hey, Cammie," he said.

"Hi Jonas. What's up?"

"I just wanted to say thank you for… uh… you know," he said blushing. He almost tripped over the door stopper.

I'm assuming he was talking about Liz. "No problem," I said smiling. At least they were going good. Liz popped up on my right.

"Hey, guys!" she cheerily said. She accidentally bumped the kid who was drinking in the drinking fountain like, totally into it. He pulled his head out of the drinking fountain and glared at us.

"Oopsie daisy!" Liz said looking back at him. We just continued on though, not even saying sorry. "So Cammie, I heard you were in cheerleading! Can you do like anything?" she laughed.

"Yeah, you're in cheerleading… computer club… that's it," Jonas stated to Liz. She just put her finger on her chin.

"Oh yeah…" we laughed. I went to my locker and grabbed my stuff for class and went off.

~*~*~*~*~

"Ugh, I do not want to be in the same complex as Mr. Asshole," Bex stated as we walked over to the turf.

"Just imagine he's not there," I said trying to reason with her. Even if she didn't care if it showed up on her records that she was at a party with alcohol, I didn't want it on mine. And I didn't want to be left alone.

"Ugh, those sexist pigs will be watching us. And you know that Cammie," Bex said walking through the doors. We went over to the sideline where everyone was stretching. We got glares from the girls so we stretched by the bleachers, so we couldn't be seen by the boys. We didn't want to be seen so all the better for us.

Then we saw a girl walk in. I don't think I've ever seen her before. She was cute - green eyes, rosy cheeks, brown straight shoulder length hair. She looked at Kelsey and she glared back. The girl quickly looked away.

"See what a bitch our captain is? That girl is probably new and she's freaking out at her," Bex whispered to me as we stretched. I looked over at the girl. She was about to sit by herself. Poor thing. She was probably a freshman.

"Hey!" I called to her. She reluctantly looked up with fear in her eyes. Wow. Poor thing, she must be terrified. "You can come stretch with us," I said. She nervously glanced around to see if it was some joke, but then she came over.

"Hi, I'm Cammie," I said introducing myself with a smile. Her eyes widened but then she looked away.

"And that's Kelsey, the bitch captain. Don't pay any attention to her," Bex growled. She looked up sort of scared.

"Sorry," I quickly said. "Bex is a little angry at her." she nodded. "What's your name?" I asked her.

"I'm Hannah," she replied quietly. It fit her perfectly, it was cute.

"Do you do any sports or activities or anything?" I asked her.

"Gymnastics," she quietly replied.

"Cool," Bex said starting to gain interest. "Can you do flips and stuff?" Hannah nodded. "I got it!" Bex exclaimed. Hannah and I exchanged a glance.

"Got what?" I asked.

"Let's be our own little cheer team," Bex said with a gleam in her eyes. I looked at Hannah out of the corner of my eye. She looked terrified.

"Hannah can do all the flips and we can catch her - or I can catch her," Bex said excitedly.

"Well, only if Hannah wants to, Bex. And don't threaten her. Because if she tells me you do, I'll kill you before you try to yell at her," I said trying to think of a way to protect Hannah. We looked at her and she started chuckling in disbelief. Her eyes were wide and I think everything we just said went through one ear and out the other.

"That's crazy," she started, "our team always sucked, for all the years I've been here," she kept going. "You think the 3 of us can make it a hit? You're crazy," she stated.

Wait, all the years she's been here?

"What grade you in?" Bex asked thinking the same as me.

"Junior," she replied. She was in our grade?!

"Well if we're all stuck in this sucky program we might as well make the best of it," Bex said. She did have a point.

"You got me there," I said stretching my groin. I haven't stretched it in forever! It felt so tight.

"Yeah, but don't you think everyone else-"

"PISS ON 'EM!" Bex exclaimed. All the girls glared at us. "Who you staring at," Bex spat at them. They all quickly looked away, they valued their faces too much.

"So, you in?" she asked me. I thought about it. Yeah, otherwise this would just be an experience I got nothing out of.

"I guess so," I slowly said. She quickly looked at Hannah.

"How bout you?" she asked. She bit her lip but then looked at us.

"Count me in."


	17. Mischievious brother

"Awesome. Let's get together after practice at Cammie's house tomorrow," Bex told Hannah. Did she just suggest my house without my permission? I guess that's Bex…

"Um, okay. Can I walk with you guys?" she asked shyly.

"Well, DUH. How else would you know how to-" Bex started rather harshly. She shut up due to my glare.

"Of course you can," I told her with a smile. She nodded.

We spent the rest of practice pretending to stretch, but rather really talking. I told her about myself and Bex just said she was a 'Bloody brilliant British' which made no sense. I think Jack/cheerleading is taking a toll on her.

Hannah told us she was the youngest girl in the grade, and her height didn't really help her at all. She was always over looked. She got in trouble for spilling paint on some girl during art class and the girl made a huge deal of it like she did it on purpose. She was going to tell the truth but all the girls were glaring at her and the one who made it up sent her a look that said, 'tell and you're dead'. That's how she found herself here. Finally practice was over (we could tell because all the girls got up and ran to the other side of the field, a.k.a. the boy's side). We got up and gathered our stuff laughing. I saw the a group of boys make their way across the field.

"Hannah?" She looked at me with a smile. It's good to see she's comfortable around us now. "Can you jump fences?" she looked at the fence.

"I'm not sure I can jump a fence that high," she said pointing to the fence surrounding the field.

"Alright, we'll meet you on the other side of the fence okay?" I said trying to think up a plan. They would probably make sure running to the fence was not an option. I looked at the time. 4:54. They wouldn't unlock the door for another 6 minutes. Again, our school being SUPER weird won't unlock the dome until the time we are released, so 5.

"Start climbing the fence," I told Hannah. She looked at me funny but then she realized that a whole bunch of boys were coming over. How quickly she took off for the fence was hilarious. Bex chuckled.

"What's our plan of action?" she asked me. There had to be something at our advantage. They were wearing all kind of protection, while we didn't have anything on.

"Let's jump the bleachers," I said not looking.

"You're crazy!" Bex said in disbelief. I looked over and she was staring at me wide eyed.

"We hop over and climb down and get a head start on the guys," I said reasoning with her.

"So when do we run?" she asked. The stairs were right behind us. They were maybe 10 feet away now. I glanced over and Hannah went over the top.

"HEY GIRLS!" one of the guys called.

"NOW!" I yelled and we went sprinting up the bleachers. I heard their feet stomp right after us.

"I'm not sure I can do this, Cammie," I heard Bex say.

"What, you aren't up for adventure?" I smirked trying to get her into it. Only 13 more steps…

"What, I never said that, but what if we fall?" she stated.

"Risk it for the biscuit," I told her. I think she was catching on to what I was trying to hint.

"Wait, are you saying I'm a coward?" she asked. We were at the top.

"Exactly," I said jumping onto the fence. I was already at the top of it. "See you later after the mess," I said with a smile.

"Don't leave me!" she said jumping up. Okay, this wasn't the safest thing I've done but whatever.

"JUMP!" I heard Hannah's voice. I looked down and there was one of those pole-vaulter's mats beneath us. I let my hands free.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" I heard Zach yell. I looked back and his face was terrified, everyone was frozen. I smirked. Then something clicked in his brain. He came running up. Bex fell a second before he reached it. He saw the mat and grinned.

"You won't get away so easily next time, Gallagher Girl!" he called after I hit the mat.

"Thanks, Hannah," I said smiling.

"Yeah, I was glad I got it underneath you guys. I was worried about that," she said. A car horn honked.

"Oh, that's my mom. So… tomorrow?" she said shyly.

"Yep, after practice we'll all head to my house." she nodded and then went running off to the car.

"Let's split," Bex said pointing to the time. We had 2 minutes to clear the school zone.

"Let's blow this joint," I said with a smirk. Then we took off running.

~*~*~*~

"Hey, girls!" Grant cheerily greeted us when we got home. He was giving off a different vibe.

"Hey ya, Grant. What's going on?" I said cutting right to it.

"One of the best ideas to get back at Jack," he replied grinning mischievously.

"TELL ME!" Bex said, totally interested.

"It involves some food… and some fun… and hopefully no trouble," he replied back. Bex took her shoes off and ran at him. She grabbed his hand and dragged him to the kitchen.

"SPILL," I heard her say from the kitchen. I smirked and took off my shoes and entered just as Grant started to speak.

"Well.. Here's how it's going to go,"

~*~*~*~

I made my way to lunch with a grin on my face.

"It's a miracle, you must really be excited for this. You always fall asleep during class," Bex told me. I rolled my eyes and looked at her.

"You do! It's the truth." we got to the stair case and walked up. Our lunchroom had two floors, one on the ground, and one that over looked the cafeteria. Grant told us to stay on the upper deck. We got up there. No one was here.

"Are we allowed up here?" Bex asked me.

"I don't know…. Wait, who's the new one here?" We looked down. Everyone was eating lunch and everything was going on as normal.

Then we saw Grant enter through the doors. He was frowning, and not flexing… and not doing anything that he normally does. He pulled out some raw ravioli. Ew, disgusting.

"What is he doing with that?" Bex said just as grossed out as me.

He went to the other side of the cafeteria and leaned against the wall. Then we made eye contact. Oh right, we were supposed to tell him if Jack and Zach were sitting. I looked down. Yep, Jack and Zach were sitting, backs to each other. I looked at Grant and gave him a thumbs up. Quickly he strode through the tables, so that no girl really knew it was him. Just as he got to the end of the tables he opened up the ravioli.

He came to the path in between Jack and Zach and it pulled open the bag and poured it down Jack's shirt while walking. He left the scene before Jack got up. Jack spun around at Zach.

"WHAT THE HELL GOODE!" he yelled catching everyone's attention. Everyone was silent. The room was still. Zach turned around looked strangely at Jack.

"UM, why the hell are you covered in… sauce?" Zach said normally.

"That's my question, Goode. Do you think this is funny?" Jack said staring at Zach with pure hatred.

"Nope," Zach said popping the 'p'.

"Then why did you do this? Are you trying to get back at me?" Jack asked. Zach rolled his eyes. Suddenly a bowl of soup was poured on Zach. Bex and I exchanged a look, trying to hold our laughter in. Zach glared up to the kid. It was Manny Rodriguez, Jack's buddy.

"Then you won't mind this," Manny said. "Don't pour food on my friend." A boy walked over from the lunch line with the bottle of ketchup. Didn't the lunch ladies know better? Oh wait, they were just volunteers.

"What'd I miss?" Grant asked us in a whisper. Bex and my heads whipped over at Grant.

"That scared me," Bex said. I nodded in agreement.

"Basically Jack accuses Zach, Zach gets soup poured on him-" the kid sprayed the ketchup all over Manny, "and Manny is getting attacked by ketchup," I finished, not liking how the scene was unraveling.

"Are we forgetting someone?" Bex asked me and Grant. We looked around. It was just the 3 of us.

"Nope," Grant said.

"Don't think so," I stated at the same time. I knew Kyle would want to be in it.

We looked back down. It was still silent.

Suddenly we heard a "FFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODD FIGHT!" I looked over and Kyle was standing on a table pointing at the group of boys standing. Suddenly food was flinging everywhere. Girls were shrieking, boys were laughing, it was complete _chaos_. Jack had tackled Zach onto the table and the boys were all going at each other. All in the mess of a food fight. It was crazy, pop was being poured on people, food was being chucked, for the football team some fists were flying, all in the midst of a food fight. Bex and I started laughing. This was funny. Maybe not the fight but the mess that was being created.

After about 20 minutes we heard a, "WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?!"

We looked down from the balcony and dropped to our stomach's so we wouldn't be seen. Dr. Steve, our principal, was standing in the door way.

"WILL ANYONE TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE!" he demanded again.

"A food fight?" some kid piped up. Dr. Steve glared at everyone.

"NO ONE LEAVES THIS ROOM," he yelled and exited, closing the doors. Then we all heard a lock. We ran down the stairs and out the door. Bex and I ran into the bathroom and Grant ran to his locker, which was conveniently located almost next to the lunch room door. We heard Dr. Steve's footsteps and we came out of the bathroom.

We saw Grant straighten up at his locker and his eyes went a little wide. "H-hi Bex," he stammered out. We giggled.

"Hey, we were about to go to lunch," she laughed.

"Oh no you don't," Dr. Steve replied. We spun around to see Dr. Steve. Surprise, surprise.

"We didn't do anything wrong," I said quickly.

"Honestly I really had to pee," Bex said right after.

"No, there was a food fight and since you were not in the room you will not be blamed," Dr. Steve replied.

"Why wasn't I invited?" Grant whined.

"You lucked out, Mr. Morgan," Dr. Steve said looking at Grant. Grant stood up straight. "You kids just run along now, I have a lunch room of kids to deal with," he replied. We nodded and scampered off.

"Damn, I though he would let us see the consequence," Grant muttered.

"I'm sure someone has it on video," I told him. He gave me an appreciative smile. Suddenly we heard a voice on the intercom. Wow, I think it was the first time it was used since I came here.

"Due to lunch room problems, and not enough clothing, school will be cancelled for the rest of the day. Have a nice day."

The 3 of us looked at each other.

"YES," Bex said pumping her fist. Grant and I cracked up. This was a good day. I went to my locker and grabbed my homework and stuffed it in my bag. I went over to Bex and we waited for the crowd to start out of the lunch room. After about 30 minutes, Bex and I got so bored we started doing patty cake. _PATTY CAKE_. Then the doors finally opened. Dr. Steve went storming out. Soon after came Macey.

"Shit, that's who we forgot!" Bex said in a whisper. Grant and I exchanged horrified looks. She would have our heads at home. She didn't even see us. She was covered in shit and she went straight down the hall. Wow, we weren't found yet. Then a lot of people went storming out. The crowd lessened up and it was all silent. I saw Hannah and called her over. She looked miserable.

"You okay?" I asked. She looked at me.

"I'm a mess," she replied.

"You can borrow some of my clothes okay?" she looked at me in shock.

"I couldn't," she replied. Oh I forgot. I was some legend. I would have to remember that.

"You can you my gym clothes until we get home," I replied throwing my cheer bag at her. It was full of my clothes.

"No I'll just use mine," she replied. Then she ran off into the bathroom.

It was still silent in the lunch room. Then I heard laughter. I looked inside and Kyle was laughing.

"Hey, Kyle," I said entering the gym. Whoa, it was such a mess at level eye's view. "What happened here?"

"We had a food fight," he said with a grin.

"Yuck, with what?" I said, barely avoiding some mysterious substance.

"Everything," he said laughing. He was sitting on a really dirty table. "Want to kiss me?" he asked throwing out his arms.

"Ew, no," I replied quickly, still making my way over.

"What started this?" I asked playing dumb.

"Those boys," he said hitching his thumb over at the football boys. They just stared back.

"HI!" Kyle called across the lunch room. They just grumbled and went on with whatever they were doing.

"What are they doing?" I asked.

"Cleaning," he replied.

"Why?" I asked again. Did they really have to clean this whole room?!

"'Cause they started the fight," he simply replied. "Well I'm going to get changed. See ya!" he said exiting the room. I took a glance. There were about 9 boys. Dang, they had to clean this _whole_ lunch room? I followed Kyle out and grabbed Bex's wrist.

"Ow! What? Where are we going? Or rather why are we going?" she asked as I dragged her to the locker rooms.

"We should help them," I said guiltily. She looked at me like I was crazy.

"You're crazy," she said.

"I know, but if we change into something we don't care about - like practice clothes - we could have some fun and make some mischief," I said with a grin. She was finally catching on.

"Oh I get it," she said smiling.

"Let's help them out."

We got changed and went laughing back into the lunch room.

"What are you doing," Zach asked sitting on the table leaning on the mop in his hand. No progress had been made.

"Help?" I asked sliding across sideways to a mop.

"This is fun!" Bex said coping me.

This _WAS_ going to be fun.


	18. clean up

"Why would you help _us_?" Jack asked.

"Because this is a _huge_ mess and you guys will _never_ get it cleaned without us," Bex said. I laughed. We were just sliding around in this mess. Gross, but fun. I saw Zach smirk. I hit the wall and fell on my butt. Then I saw the mess Bex and I left from sliding. It could be a slip-n-slide it was so messy! But then that gave me an idea…

I pushed Bex out of the way.

"Rude much?" she shouted sliding on her butt. I went to the wall and pushed off of it with my hands and went sprinting. This probably isn't the smartest thing I've done, but I did it anyways.

I dove into the food and slid across it.

Definitely slip-n-slide material. I got up and saw Zach get of the table to run over where we were. Bex beat him to the wall and came sprinting down at me. Let me tell you, Bex is _fast_. She fell about halfway, but she was still speeding toward me.

"I'm not going to be your safety block," I yelled scrambling out of the way. She popped up when she was 5 feet away from the wall.

"Brilliant, Cammie," she said smiling.

"HEADS UP LADIES!" we looked back to see Zach sliding at us not even 4 feet away. There was no way we were going to dodge this blow. He came sailing into us - like we were the bowling pins and he was the bowling ball. He grabbed Bex and I and spun us around so his back hit the wall and we nailed him.

"That was fun, wasn't it?" he asked us with a smirk. I rolled my eyes and got up. I grabbed a mop and started moping up the mess. Suddenly there was music filling the room. Pump it by the Black Eyed Peas. I looked around looking for the source of this music, and I saw at the lunch room door Hannah brought the radio from the girl's locker room.

"YEAH Hannah!" Bex yelled. I whistled. She blushed.

"TURN IT UP!" some kid yelled she put it down inside the lunch room and put it up - WAY up. So now we were all singing to pump it by the B.E.P., slipping and sliding, and sort of cleaning (not really).

Hannah grabbed a towel and went to the table and started pushing all the contents on the ground. That was probably a smart idea - clean the tables and _then_ the floor. I grabbed a mop and climbed onto the table and started 'sweeping' all of the food to the floor. Then Boys Like Girls Love Drunk came on. Let me tell you, some guys were getting into it.

Nick jumped onto the table and started using a broom as a microphone. He went all out. I mean _all_. He was really getting into it and some of the other boys jumped up with their brooms and used them as guitars.

Are we back in preschool?

Then we heard some bangs and I looked over by the kitchen. Jared was smacking pots and trays and all sorts of stuff with something. Let's just say he was rocking out in there. Finally we (well the girls, like BEX, HANNAH, and ME) got all the tables cleaned off beside the ones the boys flipped over for more food fights, singing, and whatever they were doing. We took the west side and they took east. Let's say they weren't far at all. We had about half the room done, thanks to us.

"Alright boys, clean up time," I announced ruining their fun. It was already 3! This fight happened over 3 hours ago.

"What no," Zach stood up from the cover of his table.

"The fight was just getting started," Jack complained standing up right behind Zach. What? Were they friends already? Then Jack got nailed on the side of the face with half a muffin. The boys went back into battle mode. I looked at teams.

Zach, Jack, Sam, Alex. Wow. Are they really fighting on the same team? I looked at the opposite side.

Manny, Johnathan, Jared, Nick (ketchup kid!), and Max. The teams were intermixed (like team Zach and team Jack were teaming together for this fight).

"It's been 3 hours since we were dismissed. COME ON GUYS," Bex said.

Reluctantly everyone started flipping over tables.

"We'll leave you guys with the mess," Hannah said smiling with her high voice. It was so cute. The boys started hustling. It's good to see she has confidence.

Finally all the tables were flipped and put back to their normal positions. Let me tell you, their side was a MESS. They must've made it worse. I walked out to go change. Bex stayed there to maintain order. I quickly took a shower and changed back into my uniform. Please don't have Zach waiting to hug me and mess up my uniform. He'd be talking to Mace if he did.

I walked in and everyone was cleaning as supposed to. I stayed on the clean side. Hannah looked back and got up and ran out of the lunch room. Huh, she probably wanted to get out of her clothes. I mean YUCK she was messy. She returned quick enough. Bex got up and changed. She needed it. Her hair was full of food and sauce and whatever not. I wonder if I looked like that because it looked disgusting. The boys still cleaned surprisingly. Huh, I wonder if Bex said something. They were done a lot quicker, then again they did have about 9 boys to clean half a lunchroom. They all went out the door, Bex grabbing a mop and quickly mopping up their trail. I sat in the lunchroom. Wow, it looked a lot cleaner than usual.

"Wow, it actually looks nice," Hannah said taking in her surroundings.

"Yeah, amazing what we can do," I said chuckling.

"You know they don't really clean this? They only wipe tables really," Hannah told me. Can I say EW? "So this is like a miracle. I'm sure everyone's going to be happy," she smiled.

"Cammie! We're going home!" I looked over and Zach and the few were outside the doors waiting for me.

"I can assure you she doesn't want to go home with you," Bex replied walking past them to Hannah and me.

"Well we live next door so either way you're going to meet up with us," Zach said giving his signature smirk. Dang, he had a point. Even if I got home after them they would just hop my balcony. That's a nuisance. Maybe if we went downstairs…

"There is no way we can out run them," Bex said bringing me and Hannah into a mini huddle.

"UH, NO DUH," I said putting on my 'YOU ARE A DOPE' face.

"Did anyone drive a car here?" Hannah asked. Yeah, I have my driver's license, but my parents won't buy me a car. Isn't that great?

"No car," I replied. Bex shook her head. There goes Plan A.

"CAMMIE!" I spun around to see a beautiful girl walking towards me. I saw all the boy's jaws drop. I smirked. The girl was taller than me, tan from always being outside. She had long dark brown hair pulled back in a hair binder with bright blue eyes. She was wearing light wash jeans with a sports jacket. She had a baseball cap on backwards, showing everyone the red socks on the back of the hat. It was definitely Margaret Kaitlin - MK!

"Plan B I run and drag her out. You guys go," I told them. They ran. The boys paid no attention.

"MK!" I yelled running at her. She smiled and opened her arms as if I were going to hug her. I smiled and then grabbed her hand instead.

"Run!" I instructed her and we passed the boys. Again, they were stunned for a minute before they chased after us.

She turned her head looking back at how far the boys were.

"Whoa! Boys are fast?" she asked chasing after me.

"That's the football team," I told her running out the doors.

"Car, blue, left," she instructed me running out of the building.

"Hannah Bex!" I yelled they saw me and started running. We hopped into the car.

"MOM GO!" MK yelled at her mom.

"Huh why?" her mom asked back confused why 2 more girls hopped in.

"We're saving Cammie and her friends from crazy boys," MK said with a grin.

Her mom stepped on the gas. We were out of there in less than 2 seconds.

"Cammie, hon, which way?" her mom said gripping the steering wheel. We were going the exact opposite way.

"Uh…" I said trailing off. We would have to use side streets. No way I wanted to speed past them and look like idiots.

"Turn right at the stop light," I instructed her. I took us all the way back to the house.

"Have fun, Sweetie!" MK's mom called as she pulled out. I looked at MK.

"I'M STAYING WITH YOU FOR 2 WEEKS!" she excitedly exclaimed. I gaped. Whoa, I was not expecting this one. She hugged me. Behind her back, Bex pointed to her and mouthed 'who is she?'.

"Guys, this is Margaret Kaitlin Carter, my best friend from Gallagher," I explained to them. "I call her MK because her mom's name is Margaret too." Bex nodded. Hannah just looked confused. It was cute. "She's my trouble-maker friend," I smiled. MK let go and waved at Bex and Hannah. Then her face was replaced with horror.

"OH MAN! I should've dropped you guys off at home!" she said.

"No problems," Bex said.

"We were coming over anyways," Hannah said quietly. Aw, she was intimidated.

"Oh, party or something?" MK asked.

"No, we're stuck on the cheerleading team," I replied. MK cracked up right there and then.

"You? YOU on a cheerleading team?" she asked in between fits of laughter.

"We got in trouble," I said shrugging. She laughed more.

"I have such a bad impact on you!" she laughed. Yeah, the reason why I'm such a trouble maker isn't probably because of Kyle. It was probably because of MK.

"So you must be the worst one on the team," she said laughing. Hannah, Bex, and I exchanged a look. She stopped laughing. "You are right?" she demanded.

"Not… really," I replied.

"YOUR TEAM MUST SUCK!" she said.

"Well, our team only stretches and act like sluts," Bex said trailing off.

"So we were planning on figuring out something to make this worth while," Hannah said.

"I'll help you guys," MK said. I grinned.

"MK is amazing at dancing. She's like a pro," I smiled. "She'll do us good."

"THANK THE LORD," Bex said throwing her hands into the air. MK grinned. I ushered everyone inside.

"HELLO, CAMMIE," I heard a cold voice. I looked up and Mace was standing right there.

"Hey, Mace. What's up?" I asked her.

"What's this that you set up the food fight?" she asked. I pulled at my collar. I was hoping she wouldn't hear about this. "Don't lie, Grant spilled his side of the story," she said. Ack, if she made Grant tell then we were screwed.

"I DIDN'T MEAN TOO!" Bex yelled, trying to save herself I suppose.

"Oh, this means war," Mace said squinting her eyes. "This is war."

She left us, walking up stairs. She left me with a bad feeling.


	19. tapers?

"Um, what did you guys do to get Macey on your bad side, because seriously, you DON'T want Macey to be mad at you," Mk said as we watched her retreating body. I stared at her.

"NO DUH," I said. Seriously, didn't need a whiz to figure that one out.

"We only planned a food fight and forgot to tell her to get her dirty," Bex replied as if it were nothing. MK's mouth went open and she cracked up.

"Why wasn't I invited to this!" she said smiling. Yeah, she was the person who would like this. Huh, like a girl version of Kyle. Too bad she wasn't into boys.

"Cause I didn't know you were coming," I replied. We were cut short because arms were around me and I was being spun around in circles. Then the body was pried off me.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING BASTARD?!" Did I mention MK was a little overprotective? I take that back. She was protective of her friends, anyone else she could care less. She's only nice to her friends, other people… don't get on her bad side.

Bex grabbed so I wouldn't wobble as much and she dragged me inside as MK blew up at the boys she didn't even know.

We went in and I lead them into the house downstairs. I heard the door slam and I knew that MK was in the house.

"OVER HERE!" I yelled getting her going in the right direction. Pretty soon I saw her.

"Boys are the worst. I'm glad we don't have boys at our school. They need to seriously MATURE," she went off coming down the stairs. We went down the hall and into our 'mini living room'.

"What are we doing down here?" Hannah asked.

"Getting away from those players," MK said. Bex chuckled. I think they shared the same idea on the boys at our school.

"Help us with a routine," I said. We really needed it.

"What is this cheerleading? Kick line? Competitive cheer?" she said listing off different kinds of dance.

"UH, the people who do lame cheers at football games," I said.

"Oh, then you don't do anything. Just do whatever they say. Those dances are meant to be lame," MK said. I groaned. That's why I didn't _want_ to do this.

"We want to make it as good as we can," Bex said.

"Don't they do pyramids and stuff?" Hannah said. We needed to convince her.

"Yeah, but cheerleading is supposed to be lame."

"Yeah but it's so lame it's stupid," I said. MK rolled her eyes.

"PLEASE WE ARE BEGGING YOU!" Bex yelled getting on her knees. "We NEED you're help!" MK pondered a bit.

"Fine," she said.

"Thank you so much!" Hannah said. Bex pumped her fist.

"Then it'll be extra practice added on with your homework," she warned.

"Who cares if we get something out of it!" Bex said.

"Don't you play soccer?" I asked.

"Craaaaap," she muttered. Whoa, that meant she was skipping out on soccer practice for the past few days.

"Um, that's not going to work well," MK said.

"She's not leaving Hannah and I to do this," I replied. There was no way I was going to do this just us 2, I mean MK leaves in a few weeks.

"Does you're school have tapers?" MK asked. The three of us looked at each other.

"I just came here," I said.

"I don't go to football games," Hannah told us.

"What are tapers?" Bex asked.

"They're the girls who dance at half time at a football game," MK said explaining as easily as she could.

"Oh, then no," she replied.

"Why don't we make a team then? It'll be better than this," she replied. "We could do it at times we like too; to make sure Bex doesn't skip out on her soccer."

"There's no way, we only have-"

"What, like 7 weeks? We just need to find people who want to do it… or rather we need _some_ talent," MK went on thinking mode. She was smart, she was going to think of some way to do this.

Now we only needed to think of how we'd convince the principal.

~*~*~*~

"Cammie! Someone's at the door!" Grant called down the stairs.

"Go answer it, you dope!" I yelled. We were brainstorming ways that we could get people involved.

"I did you idiot, it's for you and your friends. I suggest you take your stuff," he yelled. I heard him walk away.

"Annoying much?" I rhetorically asked.

"Are you kidding?" Bex asked.

"Bex, I will never understand what you have with Grant," I said as I gathered up my stuff. We walked up the stairs and I sent I laid my crap on top of Bex's to answer the door. She could hold on to it, she was tough. I opened the door. There stood Zach and some of his friends.

Before anyone could say anything my pencil went whizzing through the air and almost hit Zach dead in the eye, he caught it smirking.

"What did I do to make you hate me, Bexy?" he asked. I saw my book go whizzing.

"At least quit throwing my stuff," I yelled at Bex. It was going to take forever to get my book back. I didn't really care about my pencil.

"Shut the door!" she yelled as she walked over and slammed it in Zach's face.

"He still has my book you idiot!" I said as we argued in front of the door. Then there was a knock on the door.

I went to open it but Bex grabbed my wrist.

"Bex, I need my book," I told her as I reached for the knob. Then suddenly my book slipped through the mail slot. Something was wrong with this picture.

"Why is he giving back the book?" Bex asked as we all stared at the book. Then it hit me. I opened the door and no one was there. Uh-oh.

I sprinted up the stairs and opened the door to my room. I flicked on my light and 5 boys yelled surprise. Well 6 including the one who was walking in. Boys just kept on filling my room. It was horrible.

"What's going-" Bex stopped mid sentence when she saw everyone in my room. "YOU LEAVE YOUR DOOR UNLOCKED?!" she scolded me.

"No, I don't, but they always seem to be able to get in," I whined. I really did lock my door, but they always found a way in.

"What's going on in here?" MK asked as she entered the room. Suddenly the boys stood up straighter and their arms went to their sides. What, was this their way of looking nice? "Who are these boys?" she asked.

"People who like to just randomly walk into my house," I replied. It was true wasn't it?

"Ou," she said with a smile. Did I mention she loved playing with boys? I don't think I did. She rarely does it.

"GET OUT," she said in a hard voice. Whoa, no games this time? Immediately they all followed one another out of the room sprinting.

"Anything to please the princess," I muttered. She just laughed.

"Got them out didn't I?" she asked as she jumped onto my bed. I rolled my eyes. Okay, so she was pretty and she could almost always get her way, but she usually didn't use that to her advantage.

"Anyways, we need to think about this dance team," she said getting with the subject. "What are you doing Bex?" my head whipped over and Bex was eating her homework. Literally. Like, LIGIT.

"What the heck are you doing?!" I rephrased MK.

"I'm eating my homework, obviously," she replied. We all looked at each other. That was really weird.

"Okay and why are you eating your homework?" Hannah asked.

"Because I'm frustrated with it!" she yelled out angrily.

"What is it?" I asked.

"STUPID SPANISH!" she practically screamed.

"What is gong on in here?!" Macey said breaking in through the door. She stared as Bex stuffed more paper in her mouth.

"Why is she eating her homework?" she asked.

"It's a better excuse than my dog ate my homework?" I replied.

"Lame," MK replied.

"Bex, I'll help you with your homework, grab it and let's go," Mace told Bex as she left the door. Sighing Bex got up and followed Macey out.

"Is she normally like that?" MK asked. Hannah shrugged and they looked at me.

"Uh, she doesn't _normally_," I said trailing off. I only knew Bex for like, 2 weeks maybe.

"OH MY GOD!" we jumped up and ran into the hall, only to meet Bex screaming half way.

"Bex, calm down, and tell us what's wrong," Hannah tried coaxing Bex.

"No, Macey designed the cheerleading outfit, and it's been _accepted_," she replied. There was a moment of silence.

"Okay we've got to make this thing work."

"What the hell are we going to do?"

"Okay, we need to get people's attention."

"This has GOT to work."

I think that was what really sparked us into doing this. I mean, who wants to wear what Macey designs? It's probably really… uh, showy or something. Any who, I know that **I** don't want to wear it, Bex and Hannah probably don't either.

"Well get this figured out. I'll get people, you talk to the principal," MK bargained. Oh jeezum.

We were going to have to talk to Dr. Steve.

That was something we were going to have to do though, because there was no way I was going to wear anything Macey designed, and she knows that. I think.

"Well, I have an idea to get people. You guys are going to have to figure out how to convince 'our principal'," she said as she jot some things down on the paper she had. "What time is it?" she asked. Whoa, I was really keeping track.

"8:14," Bex replied. "8:04?!" she got up and scrambled her things into her bag. Hannah calmly did the same thing.

"What's up with the packing?" MK asked.

"Well, you're staying here, but I told my family I would be home at 7," Bex replied running out the door. "Bye, Cammie, MK, see you tomorrow!"

"Bye guys," Hannah said soon after. They both went out the door.

"They live that close to you?" MK asked.

"I honestly don't know," I replied. There was a tap on my door.

"Did you hear something?" MK asked.

"It's my balcony. Most likely Zach," I replied as I opened the door to - none other than - Zach!

"So do I get an introduction to the pretty young lady over there?" he asked gesturing at MK.

"I have no interest in guys, so you're better off still looking for that hooker of yours," she replied.

"Ouch, call Cammie a hooker?" he asked as he put his arm around my neck. I pushed it off.

"Explain," she said staring at me.

"You said-" Zach started thinking she was talking to him.

"Not you," she snapped, then returned her attention to me.

"Neighbor?" I said in more of a question.

"Really, just because some womanizer is your neighbor you wouldn't talk to them," she said looking for the reason.

"I don't know, MK," I sighed. I didn't know why I stuck around and put up with him, rather than siking Grant on him.

"Yeah, MK. If she likes me then butt out," he said trying to lighten the mood.

"Don't call me that," she snapped. Did I mention she hated boys that flirted with her? Well now you know. He backed off.

"You can go with Margaret," I told him, rather than her screaming at him.

"Margaret," he corrected.

"Just leave," she sighed having enough of him.

"Bye Gallagher Girl," he said with a smirk, and then he was out of there.

"What the hell did he just say?" she demanded.

"Chill, he calls me Gallagher Girl since I went to Gallagher and all," I said trying to calm her down. It was a crazy day, and now I just wanted some sleep. Yeah, that sounded good.

"You realize you still have homework?"

And my day just got worse.


	20. long days

I woke up really sore. I yawned and stretched. I looked up and realized I was still on the floor and MK was sleeping on my bed. Really? We have a guest bed, or a blow up mattress or _something_.

Sighing I got up and went over to wake MK up, but then thought better of it. I grabbed a book and threw it at her. She immediately threw the book another way, into my closet and flipped over. After a second she got up.

"Morning Cammie," she smiled. I just stared at her. Yeah, she must be happy, she had a good night sleep. Which brought me to think, why the heck was she out of school?

"MK, why did school go out?" I asked, half afraid of the answer.

"Explosion in the chem. Lab," she replied like it was no big deal. I just stared with my mouth wide open. I'll bet you anything she was behind this.

"Don't tell me-" I said as she explained.

"I accidently did it honestly! I mean, it was after school and no one was in the building beside me and Dr. Fibs! He left the room and I saw some really cool looking chemical, Cammie you would've been in awe too if you saw it. It was like a tye-dye in a tube. I thought I could mix it in with my experiment so that it would look cool, and then the lab and east wing of the school… well I'm just saying I didn't mean to!" I stared at her.

"I don't believe you."

"Okay, how'd you know," she demanded. I could always tell when she was lying.

"It's easy to tell."

"Then tell me what I did to the lab," she replied.

"Oh, I know you did that, but I just don't know _why_. YET." She just laughed. She got up and went to Macey's room, probably to get the uniform she was going to wear. I went to the end of my bed and put my uniform on. I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth and combed my hair. I got out and went back to my room and MK _still_ wasn't there. I waited on my bed for MK, and after about 20 minutes she came in.

She looked amazing. MK was already pretty and with Mace's touch - she looked marvelous.

"Trying to impress someone?" I joked. I knew she didn't like any boys, but it was fun teasing her.

"Uh, let me think," she said putting her finger on her chin looking up into the air. Then she looked at me and yelled, "NO!" I rolled my eyes. I grabbed my backpack and we walked out the door and down the stairs.

"Want some breakfast?" Grant called from the kitchen. We went to the kitchen and Grant had made so much stuff. He had loads of eggs, pancakes, waffles, bacon, you name it.

"We are never going to be able to finish this Grant," I told him with a sigh. He always over cooks but I don't think he's ever gone _this_ far. I sighed and went to go get Mace to try to help us eat. Then it hit me, why wasn't Mace already down. I looked at the clock and it was 7. **7**. I couldn't believe it. I was up really early for a change. Well I went up and got Mace to help us eat this food. Mom and dad left early for some meeting or something. We walked down the stairs and into the kitchen and I was shocked. Over half the food was gone.

"Cammie, I wish Grant lived in my house. Your brother is AMAZING," she said with a smile. Grant was staring at her with the same expression as me. Whoa, that meant she ate almost all of that. Especially in that short of time.

"D-did you eat all of that all by yourself?" I asked shocked. Honestly, if you were gone from about food for 10 people for 5 minutes and that 10 people's worth of food goes down to like _4_ I think you would be sort of shocked too.

"I was hungry, don't judge me," she said. Then she brought her dishes to the sink. I looked at Grant. Wow, for once I was glad he made an extra.

"I remember from last year when she ate our whole fridge," he answered. Oh yeah, I remember that. And then she was so full she laid on the couch and slept and that was the end of that sleepover.

"Right," I said understanding why he made so much now. Great, so we were going to be poor for the next few weeks because we're going to have to buy so much food. MK has her faults too I guess. Mace, Grant, and I ate our food and we were out the door, 15 minutes earlier than normal. I guess we were going to race. MK was a really good runner. She played hockey so her legs were really muscular. She played tier I hockey. She's amazing! She also plays softball, volleyball, and does snowboarding and skiing and karate; you get the point that she's athletic.

Well we got to the dome and hopped the fence (after much complaint from Mace).

"So who's going to race me first?" she asked with a grin. Last time I raced her she lapped me. She was amazingly fast. Probably helps when she tries to get away from playing one of her pranks.

"I choose…. Grant!" I said as I ran over next to Macey. He looked at me with fear. Grant hates being showed up, so this'll be interesting.

"Hey Cammie!" we looked back and Bex hopped over the fence. I grinned. Now Grant was going to get embarrassed in front of his 'future girlfriend'. He looked over at me with pure hate. I smiled back like an innocent girl.

"READY!" Mace yelled getting everyone's attention. "SET!" They got into the runner's stance. "GO!" and the two of them went taking off.

"Totally think MK's going to win," Bex told me. I grinned. I thought the same. MK had a good distance on him. But suddenly Grant started to catch up. I grinned. He wasn't going to look dumb in front of his 'future girlfriend'.

He was closing the gap rapidly, I was getting surprised.

"Whoa, he's really closing the gap," Bex stated the obvious. I rolled my eyes.

"DUH," I replied. We looked back and they were even. MK had shock all over her face. Then Grant started pulling away.

"Come on MK!" I yelled. Poor Grant, no one ever cheered for him. They crossed the line, Grant ahead.

"I guess I shouldn't of slowed down," MK muttered. Well, come to think of it she did slow down…. I realize that…. Now.

"Wow, Grant, you just barely beat a girl," Bex said with a smile. He had a smile plastered on his face. Oh, I hope he doesn't let that one soak in.

"I'll race Bex," I said dragging her to the track. I don't think she wouldn't want to see Grant go silently cry in a corner from the no love.

As we were walking up I asked Bex what the cheerleading uniforms suggested looked like.

"She didn't show me the exact design, but from how the shape was I didn't like it," she muttered.

"Yeah, that really tells me a lot."

"NFL-ish," she replied. Uh, that was not going in a good direction.

"Wait, aren't there rules for the outfits?" I asked. Bex just shrugged.

"All I know is that it looked slutty and I will never wear anything of the sort," she told me. We reached the line.

"Ready to get your butt kicked?" she asked me. I laughed.

"You wish."

We had our race and I won. Yeah, I used to run with MK. I never beat her but I did get faster. Hm, maybe we could pull some interesting pranks on some people using her? Nah, I'll think of something better.

"WHAT ARE YOU KIDS DOING?!" our heads whipped over to see the janitor type person running at us.

"Uh, run opposite ways and pass him and run out," I said making the plan.

"BREAK!" I grinned as MK and I did our little thing. I don't know why but we always did the little football 'break' thing.

So we all went sprinting off in different directions, then we got by him, finally we ran into the school laughing, which of course got everyone's attention because it's so cheesy. You know in like movies, books, t.v. shows, you name it, they have the clique come laughing through the door? Well that's what we looked like, except we weren't doing it for publication. We were just laughing at that field maintainer's stupidity.

"So what's so funny, honey?" Jack asked as he slung his arm over my shoulders, did he not understand I had NO interest in him?

"Your flirting. It's so pathetic," MK told him with a glare.

"Ooh, who's this work of art?" he asked me as he tried to get MK under his other arm.

"Not your property," she said as she slapped his hand away.

"Oh come on, I'll make sure you have fun," he smirked. Jeez, player much? Yuck, I guess you could take that another way too…. Uh gross. I tried pulling away.

"No, no. You too Cams," he said smiling. Is this kid drunk?

"Get your sleazy had off my sister and her friend," someone growled. Sister = Grant must be talking.

"Uh, I think you should let go of us and hurry up and run away," I whispered to Jack.

"What, think I can't hold my own?" he asked.

"Uh, he's worse than Zach," I told him. He just laughed. I ran away from him along with MK. By now there was a circle around them and onlookers. Where's a teacher when you need one?!

"You, will NEVER, mess around with _my_ sister ever again," Grant growled. Jack started to move clockwise, like they were going to circle around for a while. Grant just went straight in though.

It was bad. Grant and Jack flew into the locker and then the fight started. All the girls were shrieking and Grant was just pounding on Grant. Zach soon broke through the huddle and grabbed Grant off of Jack, Jack sprung up and tried to take a punch at Grant, but instead Grant nailed him in the stomach. Jack doubled over. Uh, I don't think that was the smartest idea. He was harassing us but he is the star QB and that's a pretty important position on the football team.

"Wow, our QB gets beat up a lot," Bex muttered to me as he blacked out.

"Yeah, well maybe he shouldn't be so stupid," I replied walking to Jack. I pulled him so he was sitting up.

"Is he alive?" Bex asked. Grant did nail him pretty hard.

"He'll live," I replied. "We just need to get him to the nurse," I replied picking him up. Ugh, he was heavier than I thought. "Bex, help me," I said, struggling to pick him up.

"I'll take him," Grant said reluctantly. I laughed.

"Yeah, Grant, you go man!" I joked. Just like him, he hurts someone, he feels the need to take care of it. Aw, Grant's a good person on the inside. He glared at me. But he picked up Jack and walked to the nurse.

"Are you okay, Gallagher Girl?" Zach asked me.

"You can just go away, we've had enough of boys," MK told Zach. She didn't like Zach really from what I could tell.

"The love is gone?" he asked us. We rolled our eyes. No, no let's not try to mix lyrics into this.

"Yes it's gone. Now get lost!" MK said coldly. He glared at her but complied. He left.

"Let's get to class," MK said. We went to my locker. Ack, notes!

"What is this?" MK asked as notes flowed to the ground.

"Boys who can't talk face to face," I said in an explanation.

"Wow, that's pathetic. I'm so glad I don't have boys at our old school," MK replied. Okay, I've heard her say that about a million times. I picked up the notes and put them in a bucket.

"Whatever. Well we better get to class," I replied. With that we left my locker and went to class. While walking every guy was staring at us, or rather MK. I know she' s beautiful and all but please, don't stare.

We got to class and everyone's head turned.

Ugh, with MK around, _every day_ is going to be a long day.


	21. take your shot

Wow, you guys LOVE Kyle. Ha ha ha. You're just going to have to keep reading to see if Zack or Kyle gets Cammie! Wow, I was reading a review and they were calling Jack a jackass. I just realized that Jack, add ass, you get jackass. Lol, you get it? Well anyways, just a heads up, I have a basic outline laid out. This whole ordeal will go on for a while… so sorry if you don't like long stories. Also there's going to be a part 2! Yea! It's going to be the second trimester. I've got a whole lot of plans for that, and if you have a good idea, let me know!

Okay, I keep forgetting to put this in. Divagirl helped me with MK's character. So round of applause for her. Make my day and review please. I'll update as soon as I can but the more reviews the more willing I am to stay up late.

Ha ha ha, guys, check out - foodnetworkstar's Odds and ends and review it. I don't care what you write. In fact, make it the most RANDOM thing you can think of. Tell your friends about it, I think she accepts anominus reviews. Don't write anything mean but do random! Make it silly! Why should you do it? JUST DO IT! Ha ha ha. It'll be funny what she sends me back. I'll post it. She's so random it's hilarious. You'll enjoy….

I think.

Well enough of me and on to the story!

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"MK, you are going to make me seen _everywhere_," I told her while making my way to my seat, head _down_.

"Not my fault, Macey just grabbed me and pulled me in a chair after I got my uniform," she said keeping her head up. Ugh, she didn't care if everyone saw her, but I did.

"Ms. Morgan, you have a guest with you today, actually one wearing a uniform," Mr. Robinson said as he saw us.

"Uh, she's in this class," I said. Wait, was she not listed?

"Oh, is she the new girl?" he asked. With that whispers erupted from the class. I rolled my eyes.

"Margaret Kaitlin Carter. Don't call me MK. Nice to meet you," she said standing up. I looked back and Zach was grinning. Someday, I will take that stupid grin off his face. One day I will. It'll be all me, I'll remove it. She sat back down.

"Very nice to have you with us," Mr. Robinson said.

"Oh, and I'm only staying for a few weeks," she said standing up and sitting back down. Did she want attention? Augh!

"Can I have your number?!"

"Yeah, yeah! Me too!" With that a ton of boys started yelling out for her phone number, address, 'open days', etc. She just sat like nothing pertaining to her was going on. Finally Mr. Robinson restored peace in the class room and we learned english. Then the bell rang. Thank God.

"Ew, why are _you_ here?" we heard Tina ask. No one had left yet and the room was dead silent. Tina really has to learn the time to do these things. If she likes being popular, then she really needs to not be… rude? Just needs to be politer than usual.

"Tina, why are you being so mean to the new girl?" Aaron asked.

"Oh, you do not know this girl at ALL," she growled. Ha ha ha, let's say, MK isn't as innocent on the pranking on Tina as I was.

"What are you talking about? What have I ever done to you?" MK asked. Tina, leave the room, otherwise you're going to get burned.

"Um, don't play innocent," Tina barked. Oh, Tina was getting mad. Not good.

"Tina was it? Why are you mean to me? What have I ever done?" MK asked.

"Like, how about shaving my poor poodle BALD," she yelled out. Everyone was cracking up.

"GET OWNED!" Nick Ryan shouted across the room. Uh, I don't think that's one thing you want getting out.

"Me? Shave your poodle? You _had_ a poodle?" MK asked. Everyone was laughing. I felt sort of bad for her. Tina I mean.

"Oh, what about the time you tripped me on stage and we had to stop the performance because I got a concussion?" Tina asked. Everyone laughed harder. I slammed my head into my hand. She was so stupid.

"She tripped you on stage and you got a CONCUSSION from that?" Kevin Puglisi asked.

"GET OWNED!" he and Nick said together. Uh, I should save Tina from further embarrassment.

"HEY PEOPLE!" I yelled standing on a table. Everyone did a double take. Wow, I bet they forgot that I was even in the room. "We are going to be late for class if we keep up with this!" I told them. Then the bell rang.

"I take that back, we are all late for class," I said jumping of the table and running through the door. Everyone followed after me. People were shutting their doors.

"Are we late?" MK asked running after me.

"YEAH," I said in the 'duh' tone. I mean, didn't take a genius to figure that one out.

"We are so going to be late," Bex said catching up to us.

"GO FIGURE,' I told her as we got to our lockers. Wow, these people loved pointing out the obvious.

I opened my locker and notes flowed out. I did not have time for this. MK bent down and picked them up while I grabbed my things for art.

"Do you always get notes?" she asked stuffing them into the basket I put them in earlier.

"No, she didn't get them for a while, this has been the first in a long time actually," Bex replied for me. I was willing to bet more than half of them were for MK though.

"When are you going to get your own locker?" I asked MK.

"Oh, because I'm only staying for a week or two I have to share with you," she replied. Great, so I was going to have to deal with MK's notes. Well I had to get to class, no time to deal with this.

"Let's go," I said grabbing my stuff. We made our way to the art room. The door was locked. I knocked. No reply. Great, I was locked out. Or WE were locked out.

"What's going on?" MK asked as she banged on the door.

"Knock it off, we're locked out and she's not letting us in," I told her. "Well just have to hang around," I replied. MK looked at me weird.

"Your teacher isn't letting you in?" MK asked. I nodded, my art teacher was a little strange. It was either you were there or you were absent.

"Yep." That was my response. MK just slumped against the wall.

"So what do we do now?" she asked.

What do you do if you can't go to class?

What do you do if you're locked out?

What do you do if it's considered 'skipping class'?

You go find Kyle.

"We go find Kyle," I replied.

"Who's Kyle?" MK asked. Oh right, MK didn't know Kyle yet.

"One of my friends," I replied.

"I'm assuming he's a guy," she replied a little cold. I bet she thinks he's bad or something.

"Don't worry, Kyle's cool," I told her. She looked doubtful. "Let's go find him." she looked up at me sourly. Why did she have such a sour attitude towards boys? Oh well.

She got up and followed me to the gym. As we neared I could hear the sound of sneakers squeaking. I grinned. He was in there all right.

"Okay, why are we going to what I'm assuming is a gymnasium? I mean, isn't there a class going on in there?" MK asked as we neared the gym.

"Nope, that's just Kyle," I replied with a smile.

"Okay, are you going out with him? You're smiling more than normal," she replied.

"Well, I'm excited you're going to meet Kyle!" I said with a smile. The noise stopped in the gym. Yikes! He heard me. I grabbed MK and we ran around the corner.

"Why are we hiding from him?" MK whispered to me.

"SH!" I whisper shushed back. She stayed quiet. I heard footsteps come to the corner, but they never came around. I heard them return to the gym. I sighed relief.

"Cammie," startled I looked up.

There stood Kyle.

"Wait, I thought he just went into the gym," MK said in a whisper. I looked over and she looked startled. I chuckled under my breathe.

"Kyle's full of surprises," I said with a smile. She turned her head towards me. "Yeah, he shocked me with a silver mustang at homecoming," I told her. She stared wide eyed.

"And you're a junior and your parents bought you _that_? My parents got me an Escalade!" we looked at MK. "No just kidding," she replied with a grin.

"Yeah, and my parents bought me a Ferrari," Kyle said mockingly.

"Well I got a cabin for my birthday," MK said.

"Yeah, and I got a mansion with servants," Kyle said. "Don't forget my awesome pool and tennis courts." MK was cracking a smile.

"Yeah, and Sidney Crosby is my husband," MK said. Kyle finally broke out laughing.

"Who are you?" he asked laughing. I smiled. See, I knew MK would approve of him.

"Margaret Kaitlin Carter," she replied.

"Uh, I'm never going to be able remember that," he whined. I laughed.

"MC," I replied. He nodded.

"But NOT MK," MK replied.

"Okay, MC, got it," Kyle replied.

"So what are you doing?" MK asked. Kyle lifted the basketball that was in his hand up to MK's face.

"Why are you taking shots? And during class?" she was puzzled.

"Kyle is known for his… skipping," I said making it more obvious.

"You skip class?!" she demanded.

"Yeah, it's for a good cause," he explained. I rolled my eyes. Yeah, he was tardy 8 times already so he got kicked out of class. If you call that a good cause than well, going to class must be a bad one. We walked back into the court, seeing a few teachers around us shut their doors.

"So you play hooky too?" MK asked me. I rolled my eyes. Not exactly. Only the times my crazy teacher locks me out of the room.

"Well, seeing things happen like I get locked out of a room-"

"I get it," she replied. Kyle smiled and went down the court and back to shooting baskets.

"Let me take a shot!" MK yelled from across the gym. He threw her the ball. She started running while dribbling. Then half court she leapt into the air and took a shot. My jaw dropped. It looked like it was going to go in, from that early. Unless some wicked wind came that ball was a perfect shot.

You know the sound of just net?

That's the one we heard then.

"That was amazing! Do you play basketball?" Kyle asked running across to us.

"No, not really. My winter sport is hockey. But that doesn't stop me from playing other winter sports. Like I love to snowboard," she told him. He nodded with interest. I laughed while MK looked at me like I was a freak. Well I knew that Kyle was going to try to get her to somehow play basketball. And he would succeed too, if it weren't for the fact she wouldn't be here second trimester.

"Kyle, she's only going to be here for two weeks!" I told him. His smile just turned upside down.

"Aw man! I was going to think up some fantastic plan to get her to join too!" he said. I could tell he was a little disappointed but not really.

"Yeah, so I'm guessing you're main winter sport is basketball," MK said.

"Well, if you can add I think a child could figure that one out," he answered.

"Well, there are people like ME who like to play other sports but don't play them. You thought I was a basketball player when I'm a hockey player," MK told him. Oh, she was going to try to tell him off now.

"Well whatever. Do that half court shot again for me," he said passing her a ball.

"Oh, I'll prove myself alright," she said with a grin. She went back to the court and started dribbling. Then she started to run. Next thing you knew she was making that perfect half court shot.

"Damn, do you practice basketball?" Kyle asked. I'm sure he was genuinely interested to figure out how she mastered the 'making a half court shot' shot.

"Hm, not really, but I did take some shots. Like at my old school-" she winked at me, which caused me to roll my eyes, "in extra time in gym, we could, practice, _taking shots_." DOUBLE MEANING THERE! Whoa! Do not know what _that_ means! "So I _perfected_ it there." I stood staring at her in wonder. I was going to make her fess up when we got home.

"You had to be doing something else too. I've been shooting my whole life yet I still can't make a perfect shot _every time_." I rolled my eyes. I was going to let these guys battle out their 'shooting' problems. I went outside and got a drink. I looked over and saw Nick Ryan slip a note into someone's locker. I almost laughed but I slipped inside the girls bathroom first. Nick was the most outgoing person I probably knew. He was nice, funny, just everything. I could never imagine him slipping a note into someone's locker. Or rather, let me rephrase that.

I could never see Nick Ryan liking someone enough to do that.

He was always joking around with girls but he never got serious with one of them. So seeing him doing something like that was weird.

Finally after my laughter subdued, I went back to the gym, I laughed. The two of them were shooting baskets like crazy, both containers of basketballs near them, they pulled out a basketball and shot it, repeating the process.

"I'm assuiming you're trying to see who can shoot the most perfect baskets," I said stating the obvious, or what I thought to be it.

"Damn right, and I'm gonna win," MK said from down the court.

"I'm at 14 out of 15. Beat that!" Kyle shouted. He was grinning. I could tell he was getting into this.

"12 out of 13, we're at a tie," MK said.

"Yeah right, I have more baskets than you," Kyle shouted while shooting. He was shooting tons of perfect shots in a row. Amazing.

"Well, I'm catching up, boy!" she yelled back. MK hates losing, especially to boys. But then the bell rang.

"I win!" Kyle shouted. He walked over to me.

"I'm not leaving yet!" MK yelled back. Kyle startled, looked back. MK was still shooting.

"Shit!" Kyle ran back and started shooting again.

"You guys! We're going to be late again!" I yelled. But did anyone listen? Nope.

"I have math next! My teacher will freak if we're late MK!" I yelled at her. But no, they kept on shooting.

"GUYYYYYYYY-" the second bell went off. Finally they stopped.

Man, this was NOT good.

Not good at all.


	22. Who's QB?

"Great. We're late again. Way to go guys," I turned around from scolding them and looked at them. They were back to shooting baskets.

"What are you doing?!" I demanded. We were late for class yet they were still shooting baskets.

"Well, your teachers are crazy. We're probably locked out," MK replied while shooting baskets.

"If she doesn't stop, then I won't," Kyle replied. I rolled my eyes. Never again will I put two competitive people together during classes.

"Well, not all of my teachers are crazy. Some actually will let me _in_," I told her. Man, I have a feeling I'll be late to almost every class.

"Well, who's your teach?" Kyle asked still shooting. These people were never going to stop.

"I'M GOING TO GEOMETRY," I replied. He would know from that.

"YOU HAVE MRS. CALVIT?!" he yelled. He stopped dead.

"Yeah, we gots to go MK," I told her. She just kept shooting though.

"Hold on, Cammie," she yelled back. I knew she wasn't listening to me.

"I'm leaving without you," I yelled back. She still shot.

"You can get her to the room, right?" I asked Kyle.

"Well, uh, how awkward would it be to disrupt class and say that she lost her guide?" he asked me. Well, he had a point.

"Okay, I'm done," MK said jogging over to me.

"Yeah, only five minutes late," I muttered. Yeah, that feeling of being late to every class was growing stronger.

"Don't worry, I'll get us out of it," MK told me. I rolled my eyes. Yeah, she could bat her eyes at some teachers and make them feel sorry for her, but she wasn't getting away so easily on this one.

"Yeah, and pigs are flying," I responded.

"Oh come on, you know that I can persuade almost _any _teacher," MK responded.

"Yeah, but this is _Mrs. Calvit_, strictest teacher in the _world_!" I told her. She rolled her eyes and flipped her hand at me.

"Yeah, whatever. I'm amazing at this, you know me," she smiled. She loved challenges. She could also find a loophole in anything! Even things that were perfectly constructed.

We got to my locker and grabbed my stuff for math and ran off. We got to the door about 10 minutes into class.

"If we went to the nurse's office I'm sure she would give us a note," I told MK.

"Yeah, but we don't need to because you got _me_." Ah, her and her cocky attitude. She knocked on the door and Mrs. Calvit answered.

"You girls are **late**, Mrs. Morgan. Who is your friend?" she talked with such a cold voice I felt shivers go down my spine.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Calvit. My name is Margaret Kaitlin Carter. I'm staying at this school for two weeks-"

"What a waste of time! Only two weeks?!" Mrs. Calvit snapped. Man, she is in a really bad mood today.

"My school's chemical lab, uh, blew up and repair is needed in our school. So my mom sent me here," MK explained.

"Where are you from? Why are you making Ms. Morgan late? I don't want to hear excuses missy, Ms. Morgan is always on time," she went on. Man, this may take a while.

"Well technically we aren't late," MK replied. I stared at her. She could find a loop hole in almost everything, yet there was no way she could possibly find one in this one.

"And how is that," Mrs. Calvit snapped.

"Technically in Caracas it's 9:35," she replied. I put my hand over my face. I knew she wasn't going to be able to pull that one off.

"I was actually from Caracas," Mrs. Calvit responded in a thinking voice. My head went up. Whoa, really? Did that WORK?! "Well, I'll let you go this time. Next time I will not be so kind," she replied, and then let us in. I gaped at MK as she smiled at me and walked in.

I still have a lot to learn about MK.

~*~*~*~

"Whoa, someone looks tired!" I walked to our table and flopped down in a chair and put my head in my arms. I was exhausted. I had been late to every class so far this morning. All because of MK.

"Are you kidding? I'm so awake!" MK replied to Grant as she took a seat next to me.

"Ugh, because of you my locker is overflowing with notes," I mumbled into my arms, but MK's hearing was good.

"You don't know that. Some of them are for you," she replied. I highly doubted it.

"Of course they aren't for her. One, she hasn't gotten any for weeks, and two, she taken," Kyle replied as he stood behind me. Ugh, maybe I was sick. I had a mucho big headache.

"I think Cammie's on her death bed," Grant joked. Nah, I think I would agree with that statement.

"Yeah, I think Cammie actually agrees with your statement," Kyle replied. Wow, he knew me!

"Cammie, you can't die! We haven't wreaked any havoc yet!" MK complained. I laughed but then stopped, ugh, my headache.

"She'll be fine. Just think up some good prank or whatever you want to do, and you guys can do it next week," Grant replied.

"AND TELL ME," Mace added. That made everyone laugh. Kyle slipped into the chair next to me.

"Hey, guess what guys," he said getting everyone's attention. I wonder what was up. He never asked for everyone's attention.

"What's up?" Bex asked.

"I'm going to be a transfer student!" he said somewhat excitedly. Everyone went silent. That probably wasn't the best thing to say.

"You're what?" I asked in disbelief.

"I was chosen to do an exchange with Blackthrone Academy or something like that," he responded. Grant, Mace, and I tensed up. We knew some people… And that school…

"Why? Isn't exchanging a choice? When were you asked?" Mace demanded. Yeah, really. During third period nothing was different. He didn't _know_ about it then.

"Well, not for me. They called me during fourth period and told me I was going to be an exchange student. So that's the story," he replied.

"How long are you leaving?" I asked.

"A month. The last month of the trimester actually," he replied. "So I'll be coming back around Thanksgiving."

Wow, that was news to me.

"So, you're transferring at the end of the month," MK said rounding it all up.

"Basically yes," Kyle replied. The rest of lunch was ate in silence. I couldn't think of anything to say. It was weird to hear that Kyle was transferring. I mean, he rarely went to any classes, yet he was chosen to transfer? Well, his grades were really good but he, I don't know. I should stop thinking about it. The bell rang and we went off to class. We got to my locker and guess who - Zach - was standing at my locker.

"Hey, it's the girl from yesterday," Zach said in a sickly sweet voice. I knew he was planning something right then.

"What do you want, boy?" MK demanded. I knew she didn't really like him, from what happened yesterday.

"I was wondering if Kyle was actually transferring to Blackthrone," Zach said.

"So what if he is," I replied back. Zach first frowned but then he put on a fake smile.

"I was just wondering," he responded as he walked away. "See you at class!" he called back.

"That boy has problems," MK told me as I opened my locker. Notes flowed out _again_.

"Wow, Cammie's back to Ms. Popularity," Dhine joked as he helped me pick up notes. MK was just 'supervising'.

"Nah, it's more or less MK," I responded.

"Really? 'Cause I know Liam had some sort of article tomorrow about you," Dhine replied. Crap, I forgot all about Liam! Then I remembered Dhine being a little scared of Liam last time.

"Dhine, are you and Liam in a fight or," I trailed off leaving him to end the sentence.

"Not really," Dhine replied slowly, thinking it over carefully.

"Spit it out," MK told him. Startled he looked up at MK.

"You don't want to get on his bad side," he replied.

"Also, why doesn't everyone know that he does the messed up papers and you and Zach do?" I asked. He nervously looked around.

"I can't tell. I'm not even supposed to be telling you this," he responded. "I got to go," he told us and walked away.

"He is really weird," MK muttered. I looked at her. He wasn't usually weird.

"Well, we have to get to class since this is one teacher you can't get by," I told her. Yeah, Mr. Solomon would not accept tardiness.

"Then let's get going," she responded. We walked down the halls, this time not attracting too much attention, and walked in.

"Ms. Carter, nice to have you," Mr. Solomon told MK as we walked in. she stopped dead. He hadn't turned around from his computer screen for a split second.

"How did you know I was walking through the door? How did you know my _name_?" MK asked Mr. Solomon.

"For me to know and you to find out," he responded. MK shook her head and walked to the back with me. All the front seats were already taken.

"We meet again, ladies," Zach said smirking from the left of me.

"Let me sit next to him," MK begged me. He smiled. He thought he won her over. She thought she would give him something to think about.

"Let's not," I said silently giving her the 'please don't kill him' look. I mean, who knows how Jack is. Crap! We had a football game tomorrow! This is not good.

"So, do you have backup quarterbacks?" I asked Zach. I mean, we kind of need one for tomorrow, thinking Jack probably has a concussion.

"Uh, well sort of," he replied. That confused me. How could you 'sort of' have a back up?

"What?" I asked. It really didn't make any sense to me.

"Well, you know Kyle Heag," he replied, but then the bell went off. We shut up, knowing Mr. Solomon. He really knew how to put fear in a student. I mean, no one in his class would talk after the bell. And part of the reason was you didn't want to miss a single thing he said or it could be very bad.

So class went on and today it was boring. I don't know, he seemed distant, like he wasn't totally there. Something was bugging him. But that didn't stop him from being sharp.

"Peter don't pass notes."

"Ariel, no talking."

"Wilma how many times do I have to tell you not to chew gum."

Yeah, even for being distant, that didn't stop him from still being on top of his game. We didn't learn much today. He told us that we should not wear our uniforms to school tomorrow, and that he would write us all notes. I wonder what was up with that. No teacher ever did that, unless we didn't want to be seen. And there was no reason why we shouldn't be seen. We were the public school of Roseville, so really I didn't understand what he was thinking. But I would find out tomorrow I guess.

Finally the bell rang and MK and I went off. My next class was woodshop and we were making a shelf. It was really fun; we could make it in any shape we wanted, which I thought was cool. Dhine and Joe were already there. Joe cut his out really nicely. He cut it out so that the top of the shelf looked like a race car. He even made divets and stuff to make the car more pronounced. It was pretty sweet. Dhine made his into flames, a typical boy. I made mine into some waves with a surfer surfing. I thought it was pretty sweet. I was getting into surfing for some reason. I always thought it would be cool to try and surf. But anyways, we completed our shelf and we were painting it tomorrow. We still had 20 minutes of class left.

"So who's she Cammie?" Joe asked motioning at MK. For some reason they weren't put under her spell.

"This is MK, she's transferring here for two weeks," I replied. They nodded in understanding.

"Hey, MK-"

"Margaret Kaitlin," MK corrected. Joe looked confused.

"I can only call her MK. You can call her anything else, like Marg. K or MC, or Carts, or anything you can think of," I replied.

"What's your last name?" Dhine asked MK.

"Carter," MK responded. She was very quiet; I guess she was observing them.

"Okay M Cart," Joe responded with a smile. He liked making up nicknames for people. M Cart. That wasn't that bad, it wasn't the greatest though.

"Well, I'm Dhine and this is Joe," Dhine said introducing them. MK nodded.

"So you guys play basketball?" MK asked.

"Yeah, how could you tell?" Joe asked confused. MK just shook her head.

That reminded me of the whole quarterback situation.

"So do we have a backup quarterback?" I asked Joe and Dhine. They exchanged a look.

"Uh, I guess you could say we do," Joe replied slowly. I didn't understand.

"How?" MK asked. I'm sure she was curious about this whole ordeal too.

"Well, when we were little, we had the most amazing QB," Dhine slowly started out.

"And that was Kyle Heag," Joe finished. MK and I exchanged a look. There was no way I could imagine Kyle playing football. He was so crazy about basketball

"Are you kidding?" MK asked. Zach did mention his name, but there was no way I could see Kyle playing football.

"No! I'm really not," Joe responded he looked like he was telling the truth.

"Well, we played community football and Heag was our QB growing up. He was like a ladies' man, sort of like Zach, but he never went out with any of them and he never lead a single one of them on," Joe kept going. He looked around. What was up with them? Why did they not feel safe talking about it?

"But then his mom died in eighth grade of breast cancer, and he just stopped playing half way through the season. We could've totally won state with him at QB and Zach as a wide receiver, but he stopped in the middle of the season and he just never went back to the field. Everyone tried to get him to play it, but he never went back to the sport," Dhine finished. That made no sense. Why would he quit if he was good at it? What about his mother's death triggered it?

"We tried to get him to play at high school, but he wouldn't do it. He was the best we had. Since he wouldn't do it Jack said he would try. He's an okay QB," Joe said. Really? I thought he was pretty good.

"No, he's good. Just Kyle's WAY better," Dhine responded.

"I think Zach was going to talk to him and ask him if he'll be a QB. But I don't know how that's going to go since their both," Dhine trailed off. They're both what?

"He better," Joe quickly continued, "because we need a QB who isn't always looking for fights."

"But I heard Kyle was a transfer student this year," Dhine talked. I laughed in my head. This conversation was more like a Joe and Dhine conversation.

"I heard that too! God, we better hope he doesn't, because I think we need him. I heard Jack got beat up by someone he tried to pick a fight with today," Joe responded. MK and I exchanged a look. Yep, that was Grant.

"So we really need him," Dhine said putting two and two together. Wow, good to know he can add.

"Wait, Cammie, do you know if Kyle's transferring or not?" Joe asked me.

"Yeah, he said he was," I replied. They exchanged a look.

"Maybe if we talk to the principal we can get it moved back," Joe said.

"Yeah, then he can play for the rest of the season," Dhine replied.

"But then we have to persuade him to play again. He could go the first month of the second trimester. Wouldn't that be better anyways? Then he wouldn't have to make up finals," Joe responded. They were so cute trying to think up ways.

"When did he take up basketball?" I asked them they looked at me.

"He started around 2th grade. Everyone made fun of him because he was a little behind. He really didn't know how to do anything, but all of his friends were doing it so he did," Joe told me. Hmmm.

"Tell me more about him and basketball," I told them.

"Well like Joe said he started in 2th grade because he and Zach used to do anything together and Zach decided he wanted to try basketball for school. We didn't have any other school winter sports, so that was the thing to do in the winter. Well they tried it and Zach was okay at it but Kyle had a long way to go. But then at the end of the season Kyle was their ace. He could make any shot pretty much. I take that back. He couldn't make half court shots or things like that, and he couldn't do a 3 pointer, but they were still too small to do that," Dhine replied.

"After that, basketball came to Kyle like a second nature. He was amazing at it! We won the conference multiple times because of it. Ever since then Kyle was a basketball fanatic. It was fun. He was our school's ace at everything. They almost gave him the Athena award but they didn't because he wasn't a girl. But they were thinking about giving it to him when he was a boy! It was awesome. But then in middle school the football thing happened and we weren't sure what was going to happen with basketball. Then finally a third way through of the season he came to us during practice and asked to be on the team. We were all relieved. We all thought he would also go back to football but he never did. Now he always practices basketball shots. I'm not sure if he's working to get a scholarship to get into some amazing collage school but he's always practicing. Then sometimes he even skips class to shoot. But even when he skips class he gets those amazing grades. I think he's the smartest boy in the school! He doesn't look like it though. He does sleep during school sometimes. Other times he's in the nurse's office from puking or fainting. It makes me wonder what he does to wreck his body like that," Joe said.

"Well, I don't think he's wrecking his body, but he is pushing it," Dhine agreed.

"Well anyways, we need to get him to do football somehow," Joe responded. Uh, I had a bad feeling this would involve me.

"Can you help us, Cammie?"


	23. Convincing Dr Steve

"Wait, no no no. I'm not going to get dragged into this," I replied. They stared at me. "Come on, there's got to be another way!" I replied. They still stared. "Oh alright, what do I have to do," I sighed. I knew I wasn't going to get out of this one.

"Yes!" Joe and Dhine smiled. I had a bad feeling.

"Hey, we still have to talk to the principal about the taper thing," MK reminded me.

"Well she can multitask, right?" Joe asked me. I shrugged. I was somehow going to get persuaded again.

"What do I have to do?" I asked. MK shook her head at me. Hey, I do things for good causes!

"Just persuade him," Joe replied.

"To play football of course," Dhine added on.

"No shit, Dhine," I said in a 'duh' voice. I mean seriously, how stupid did they think I was?

"Why do you always call me by my last name?" Dhine asked me.

"I mean, I'm Joe, and not Ryan," Joe added.

"Well, everyone calls Dhine, Tyler Dhine, and I think it's a nuisance to say that all the time," I replied. Dhine looked taken back.

"Am I not worth the time?" he said in fake hurt. I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, you are not worth it," I responded.

"Ouch, that hurts, Cammie. That hurts," he replied.

"Then cry her a river," MK told him.

"I already have," Dhine replied with a smirk. He was just teasing.

"Get owned," Joe told MK. She rolled her eyes.

"Why does everyone say that?" she asked.

"It's like a football thing," Dhine replied.

"You play football?" I asked indecorously. I did not know that. He was a basketball person to me.

"Yeah, almost everyone here does!" Dhine replied.

"Okay, we get it," MK replied. The bell went off.

"Thanks Cammie!" Dhine and Joe yelled to me as the raced out the door. Everyone stared at me. I put my head in my hand. Talking with these boys would just get me seen more. What I didn't want to happen. MK put her hand on my back in sympathy. Everyone laughed.

Finally we got to science and it was a normal class, funny but educational. The last bell rang and we were out the door. Not wanting to find out how many notes I got in my locker, we went to the principal first. We had to somehow get him to let us have a tapare team or kick line, or whatever MK called it. I met up with Bex and Hannah, and we made our way to the principal's office.

"So what are we going to say, again?" Bex asked. We looked at each other. It was obvious none of us was expecting to do this.

"Uh, we have to convince him to let us make a tapare team," Hannah replied. Wow, thanks for that no brainer, Hannah.

We were outside the principal's office.

"Here we are guys," I whispered. We still had no idea _what_ we were going to say. Just as we were about to knock Dr. Steve opened the door.

"Hello Ladies, I was told I was to expect you." There goes MK setting everything up. Well, let's hope she has something to get us this one.

One by one we shuffled inside, Hannah entering last and shutting the door.

"Take a seat, girls, take a seat," he told us patiently. I have no idea why he was treating us like little kids, but then again Dr. Steve was sort of strange. We all slowly descended onto the chairs. We all shared a nervous glance. Our little 'meeting' would soon begin, and we still had no idea what we were doing.

"So you want to have a tapare team, huh?" he started out looking at some papers. We all looked at each other. I guess they decided I was going to be the spokes person. Just awesome.

"Yes, Sir-" I started out, only to be stared at by Dr. Steve.

"Doctor Steve please," he replied still staring, then looked back down at his papers. By then my stomach was all turn-y and icky. I did not feel well. You know those times when you do something bad and you get caught then scolded? Well that's what I felt like, just from _that_.

"Uh, Dr. Steve," I let out. My legs felt like rubber, I was glad I was sitting. He kept reading through the papers. What was he reading during our conversation? Was he not paying attention to me?

"I'm listening, Ms. Morgan," he said continuing to read the papers.

"Er- right," I replied dumbly. I felt Hannah and Bex shooting daggers at me. Hey, I'm not great at public speaking. There are more than a few reasons for me being able to hide into my surroundings.

"Alright," he replied. "You can do it," he replied looking back up. We all stared dumbfounded. He just said yes. To us like, not even making sense. Like that. We shared a glance. The door slammed open and we spun back. MK bolted through the door and came to a dead stop right as she entered.

"Was I too late? Do we still have a chance?" she asked. Wow, she had belief in us. I glared at her while Bex and Hannah looked relieved, well even more _assured_ that we would get this thing going.

"No, I have accepted your idea, Ms. Carter, but I do wonder, how will this go on when you leave in a few weeks?" We stared at her. I don't know why we're so dependent of MK but, you know we were.

"Oh, they'll be able to go on their own, we just need to find an adult that supervises to make sure they're on task, and maybe a coach," MK replied as if it were nothing to find a coach, already half way through the season.

"Wait, how many home games are there left?" I asked. I mean we only had to dance at the home games right?

"Two, counting tomorrow. Why?" Bex asked trying to piece together what I was getting at. But from the puzzled look on her face, I could tell she wasn't getting it.

"Tapares only dance at home games right?" I said. I saw the light click in everyone's head.

"I get it! We don't need a coach because MK will be here for the last home game! Plus you don't dance at state and stuff so we should be fine!" I almost laughed from the excitement Bex was saying. She was rambling on about all her 'great ideas'. I tuned out as everyone listened to Bex. Now that that was taken care of, all I needed to do was figure out how I was going to persuade Kyle, which I knew wasn't going to be easy. If he was more of a football freak, then there had to be a strong reason why he quit. But why?

"That's great! We'll do that!" my head snapped back into the conversation as MK clapped for someone's 'great idea'. I looked between everyone confused. I had no idea what was going on here.

"That's an excellent thought, we can do that," Dr. Steve agreed.

"I could _never_ of thought of that," Hannah replied. Everyone stared at me.

"Sorry, I zoned out. What was the idea again?" I sheepishly answered. They rolled their eyes at me.

"We could do a dance to the song 'In the Navy' and dress up as sailors because we have sailor costumes from last year's play," Hannah replied. Wow, they were really brainstorming.

"Alright, I got the perfect idea for this," MK smiled. I had a bad feeling her idea was going to be hard for beginners.

"MK, it's like, somewhat easy right? I mean we do have some beginners dancing," I told her as she began doing that little dance thing, you know where you think out the moves and you do little motions? Well, great, she was in her little dancing la la land.

"Why do I have a terrible feeling about this?" Bex asked me. I looked at her. She should have a bad feeling about this.

"Because, this is MK we're talking about and she wants this thing to be the BEST," I replied. She wanted to show up any other school, she was just competitive that way.

"Well it does no use for her to do that. She should show us how it looks like," Bex responded to me. She had a point, there was no use of her thinking it out. We had to see it to see if it were possible for us beginners.

"Well let's get her back to reality and have her show us the dance," I replied. We thanked Dr. Steve for letting us have a team, and then we went to the gym.

"Okay, I don't think it'll be too tricky," MK replied. She had a lap top and opened it up. She went to youtube and showed us this video. Bex, Hannah and I stared as the three minutes went by. This team or whatever was good. The dance was cool, but it was going to be WAY too hard to try to learn in about 2 weeks. Plus I wasn't even sure we had enough people. The dance had a lot of kicking, and it was probably meant for more flexible people.

"Yeah, do we even have enough people?" Hannah asked. She placed my thoughts. MK stopped and thought about it.

"Yeah, we have a lot of people, so don't worry about that," MK replied. Well, the dance was still really hard.

"Yeah, but you really expect us to be able to do that in two weeks?" Bex asked in disbelief. Yeah, it was a little far fetched.

"Yeah, we have to be able to perform this in two weeks, MK," I said refreshing her mind.

"Who says?" she answered back. We all looked at her. What the hell did she mean?

"Well, we all know that if we get Kyle back into football, we'll be going somewhere," MK kept going, "so that means we'll have more home games. We don't have to perform in two weeks," she said trying to get us in on it. There was no way this was going to work.

"How are we supposed to get Dr. Steve to agree with this?" Hannah asked.

"No, how are we going to get Kyle to do this?" Bex restated. MK grinned.

"Cammie has to do it somehow so we better plan around that," MK said. Hannah and Bex looked at me.

"You have to _do what_?" Bex asked me.

"I have to convince Kyle to join the football team," I explained. Bex gaped. Hannah just stared.

"You think you're going to be able to convince him?" Hannah asked with a chuckled. I shrugged. I didn't think I was going to be able to do it, but it was worth a shot. Plus we need him if we were going to make this work.

"Okay, I knew something was weird in eighth grade! We should've won yet we didn't!" Bex said finally getting it.

"Why did you think we didn't win?" Hannah asked. Yeah, she had the 'are you stupid or are you stupid' look on her face. True, it was weird that Bex didn't realize Kyle out was the reason for the lost season, but she's such a fan of sports she should've known. "Where were you all football season long?" Hannah asked. So very true. What was Bex thinking.

"To be honest I was socializing during most of the games," she replied. That was a shocker. Bex socializing instead of watching the game? Something's wrong here.

"_You_ of all people were _socializing_?" I asked. That was a tough one to believe.

"Okay, enough," she snapped.

"Aw, Cammie's pretty enough. She should be able to woo him." Everyone's head snapped to the gym entrance. Grant stood there smirking. "Com' on Cammie, can't you woo him with your looks or something?" I stared at him. Why was he talking like this? Was this really my brother? Nah, it couldn't be. He would never say that.

"Uh, Grant?" Bex asked questioningly. We all stared. What was he saying? He looked back at Bex.

"Yes, Bex?" he asked. We all stared. It was dead silent for a few minutes. No one said anything. This was not how Grant usually acted. Then he cracked up. He laughed for a while then left the gym.

"That was really… strange," Hannah concluded.

"That couldn't of been Grant," Bex said. "Grant never says things like that. He's the 'over protective brother' kind of person," she finished. Bex had a point. I don't remember a single time when Grant suggested I do something with or to a boy. If anything he would say something so obnoxious that I knew he was trying to get me away from the guy.

"Yeah, I agree with Bex, but why would someone dress up as Grant to drop in on us?" I asked. I mean, there was no reason for a high school student to dress up like another kid and come in to our conversation for ten minutes at tops then leave. No one would go through the hassle. We sat in wonder for a few minutes, then got back to thinking about the dance.

"Why don't we call it off here."

"Yeah."

"Sounds good."

"Let's do that."

We all agreed to stop there for the day after that weird encounter with Grant. It was just to awkward to go on. Hannah got picked up by her mom, and Bex walked on home. MK and I started home too.

"So who do you think would go to the hassle and pretend they're Grant?" MK asked. Wow, two great minds think alike.

"Wow! I was thinking the same thing!" I told her. We both smiled. We always had the same thoughts. "But I have no idea who would go through the trouble of dressing up as Grant. It seems stupid. They didn't like say anything major," I replied.

"Well, whoever said to 'woo Kyle' with your looks," MK said trailing off. We looked at each other.

"Joe," we said at the same time. I was going to talk with Joe tomorrow! He probably would go through the trouble to try and get Kyle on his team. He and Dhine were huge sports freaks and would _probably_ do anything to get their team further into the post season.

"It would make sense that he would do it," MK spoke up.

"I agree, seeing how he and Dhine care so much about the football team," I trailed off. Why would he propose that idea though? Augh, this was going to be a long thought process.

"Well, let's just get home and get some sleep," MK replied yawning. Yeah, I would put aside the whole Kyle dilemma for a while. Or so I hope. As long as Joe or Dhine didn't call me 24/7 I was going to be fine.

Finally we got home. It was already 9. From today's events I was exhausted, all I wanted was some sleep. I opened the door and we went inside.

"CAMMIE?" my mom called from the kitchen. I walked over there. I could probably fall asleep standing, I was so dead tired.

"What's up?" I asked tiredly.

"Who's Joe and Tyler Dhine?" she asked. I looked up. She was a little disapproving.

"Some boys from school. Why?" I asked. She sighed.

"They've called you over 100 times in the past 3 hours wondering if you were home and if they could speak to you," she said as she watched me. I groaned.

Those idiots.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Okay, I got the dance thing from youtube. I wanted a random song (random enough?) for the football game (I mean come on, what does sea have to do with football?). There's a kickline (I think that's what you call them) that does a dance to this song. Holy Angels winter dance team and I think it's the first one. My friend showed me and I thought it was pretty cool. It worked for it, or I think it did. It may be a little too good for a tapare team though. Whatever.


	24. movies and sleepovers

"They called over 100 times?" MK asked. She was on the verge of laughing. To her it was probably really funny. But not to me.

"Yes they did. Care to explain why?" mom asked me. MK couldn't stand it she just laughed. I put my head in my hands. Those dopes, who calls someone's house over 100 times?

"Did they really call over 100 times? Or are you just exaggerating?" I asked mom.

"Do you want to check? Count it all over?" she asked handing me the phone. I looked up recent calls. My phone memory holds up to 150 calls. I went to the bottom of the list. 'Connor and Laura Ryan'. I sighed and went a few up to a different caller I.D. 'Thomas and Karna Dhine'. I mentally slapped myself. My mom wasn't exaggerating when she said, 'called over 100 times'.

"What the heck are their problems," I muttered. It's not normal for a boy to call a girl's house over 100 times, although I don't know who did more of the calling. I'd talk to them tomorrow.

"Man, they really are desperate," MK said chuckling. I glared at her, she was getting a good enough laugh over this whole situation. "Really? They called over 100 times?" she asked me, trying to keep her face serious. I nodded. She went on a whole other laughter fit. It was ridiculous.

"MK, shut up," I said annoyed. She laughed but left the room. I could here her go up the stairs and trip and fall down a few steps and crack up again. I also heard Grant run thinking it was me.

"Well, Cam? What do they want?" my mom asked regaining my attention. I explained to her about the school day's events. She nodded in comprehension. "So you agreed to do it. Do you really want to?" I stopped. Of course I wanted to help them. They were my friends. Or I thought they were. Plus our team would be a better football team hearing their thought about Kyle. Then again I wasn't sure about everyone else. What if everyone else liked Jack? Then this would be a big 'no go'. "If you're thinking about it so much sweetie, maybe you shouldn't," she said. She had a point. Then again I could just ask everyone what they wanted. Like a wide survey. That would be good. I smiled. I thought up a plan. All I had to do was pass it through MK to see if it was a good enough idea. I grinned as I ran out the door.

"YOUR WELCOME!" my mom called as I raced up the stairs. Ah whatever. She didn't tell me anything or help me think of this idea. Well maybe a little bit… who cares, I thought of the idea!

"MK," I said as I got in the room. I froze. I saw her laughing with Zach. He was leaning on my balcony door while she was sitting on the bed.

"Oh hey Cammie!" she said with a _huge_ smile. "I was just talking with Zach! He's SO funny!" she laughed. He smirked. Yeah, I'm sure he liked having that grin.

"Ha ha ha, yeah no. Why is he in my room?" I asked as I shut the door. I didn't want or need Grant coming in here to kick his ass out.

"Just dropping by," he started, then left me hanging. What did he want?

"Uh, okay. Then you can probably go out," I replied. I really didn't want anything to go on.

"Well, I wanted to clear up a rumor that had been going around," Zach told me. I sat down against the door. Seems like I do that a lot. I motioned him to continue.

"Are you trying to get Kyle on the football team?" he asked with all seriousness. I blinked. That was that important.

"Probably… why?" I asked. He smiled.

"Seriously, are you going to or not?" he asked trying to get an exact answer.

"Well I don't know. Why," I demanded. I might as well figure something out from this. "Wait, why did Kyle quit football?" I asked. I was really curious. Zach tensed up a little, but then relaxed.

"You're the Gallagher Girl, figure it out," he smirked. He must've been content with one of my answers because as soon as he said that he went out the door.

"He is so funny," MK said chuckling. "I really want to meet these football players. They all seem so funny, but their humor is all the same kind." I stared at MK. Wow, she found out so much about them, just by being with them so little (time wise of course). She probably analyzed them more than I have, and she probably knows way more about them.

"You seem to know so much about them," I told her watching her. She didn't really mind, well she made it look that way.

"Well, if you look at their personalities it tells you a lot. For instance, if you want to know what a boy is like, you look at their pants." I stared at her. She looked at their _pants_?

"Um, MK, that's just a little weird," I told her. I might as well tell her, because I'm sure some strange and… uh, not good things come out at looking at boys pants.

"No, think about it. The pants tell you a lot about the person," she started reasoning. I still couldn't see it. "Okay, take Zach for instance," she said. I thought back. I mentally smacked myself. He was in my room less than 5 minutes ago and I still didn't remember what his pants looked like.

"I can't remember," I honestly told her. She scoffed at me, but I guess I deserved it.

"I remember when you were the most observant person ever. What happened?" MK asked sarcastically. I threw my back pack at her. She threw it back. "Ugh, fine. Let's go to his house," she said getting up. I stayed sitting. I didn't want to hop over a balcony and get in trouble. I mean if his parents saw us, we were screwed, but then again he would be screwed if my parents ever saw him over.

"Can't you just show me tomorrow?" I asked. I was to lazy to hop over the balconies. MK rolled her eyes.

"You are such a lazy person," she scoffed. I rolled my eyes.

"You know it!" I said sarcastically. This time it was her time to roll her eyes. She got up and walked out the door by herself. I waited at the door. I had a feeling she was going to drag Zach back in through the door.

"What? Why am I going back?" I heard Zach's voice outside. Yep, MK was so predictable.

"Because I said so. Just jump already!"

"Geesh, pushy much?"

"Move, I gotta jump too you know."

"Alright your majesty! I'll move, give me a sec."

"Okay, I'm counting. One-"

"You're such a serious person! Gosh, here you go. Happy? So demanding!"

"Here we go, alright. What are you waiting for? Go in her room already!"

"Uh, okay…" The door swung open and I stared at Zach as he entered the room. He looked very… uncomfortable. "Hi," he mumbled as he walked in. Aw, he looked shy, like it was his first day at preschool. Poor thing, now he gets to be used by MK in some show thingy to prove that pants have a lot to say about someone.

"Alright, Zach, stand here," she told him, moving him to a spot. He just stood there like a little kid being ordered around. I had no idea what MK did to make that cocky Zach intimidated, but she did.

"Cammie, look at his pants," I looked up at MK. I didn't really want to… "Just do it," she sighed. She probably thought I was a little kid. I looked at his pants. They looked like normal blue jeans.

"Uh, they're normal blue jeans," I replied. I didn't really see anything different or anything about them…

"Yeah, they are, but look how they are positioned," she said again. I looked they were probably a little bit lower than usual, but otherwise nothing different.

"The pants are a little low?" I asked rather than stated. MK nodded her head.

"And?"

"They're a little long?" MK laughed.

"You take this so awkwardly. So does he!" she said pointing at Zach. I think the both of us blushed. It's not _normal_ to look at people's pants. Or at least with _them knowing_ you're looking at their pants."Okay, so what does that mean?" she asked me. I shrugged. I thought she was the one teaching me. "You're good for nothing Cammie," she told me. I stuck my tongue out at her.

"CAAAAMMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!" we all froze, especially Zach. Grant was calling me. MK took action first and shoved Zach out of the house. Grant came in.

"You know you can answer me," he smiled.

"Grant?" I replied. My brother was smiling… something was up. "Uh, what's going on?" I asked looking around. Was there something in my room?

"It's movie night dork," he told me as he walked out of my room. "Movie starts in 30 seconds!" he called to me from down the stairs. "Oh I mean now!" he yelled, I suppose when he got into the living room. MK and I still hadn't moved. Then we heard a soft knock and our heads snapped at the balcony door.

"We can leave him right?" she asked. I suppose she still wanted to explain everything to me. I waved it off. He'd probably go back to his house. That would be the reasonable thing to do. We walked out and down the stairs.

It was really weird beginning. There were cops and people listening through head phones. There was a voice talking that was obviously changed. Then you saw a girl talking on it from a parking lot. Then a old man through a case onto a passing boat. Next thing you knew she was taping herself up and cuffing herself then she threw herself into the trunk and closed it.

"What movie are we watching?" I asked Grant as I sat down by the feet of dad and Grant. I gave MK the couch. Instead she sat by me.

"Like I would want to sit by your brother," she muttered to me. She got a kick in the back from Grant. She glared at him and who knows what Grant was doing back. I never was going to be told what movie we were watching, so I thought I would just have to save the thought for tomorrow. So instead I turned my attention to the TV. It was a couple hours before the movie was over. I yawned and got up off the ground. I looked beside me and MK was gone. I looked back and saw Grant sleeping like a baby, with 'bite me' written all over his arms. Then his face was turned into a panda. It looked horrible. All around his eyes were black also his mouth and tip of his nose. I snickered thinking about how Grant was going to react. We had school tomorrow and he was in for it now. I got to the stairs and chuckled. By the time I got to my room I was full out laughing. After I finally calmed myself I opened the door and walked in. my lights were off and someone was already sleeping in my bed. I rolled my eyes. MK was going to force me to sleep on the floor _again_. I changed into my pajamas and crawled into the blow up mattress. I fell asleep not a second after my head hit the pillow.

~*~*~*~

I woke up because something was in my face. I blinked open my eyes to find a hand in my face. I moved it over to it's place. I was going to wake up MK when she ran into my door. She flashed me the 'sh, be quiet' signal. I nodded back. But then I realized that she was at the door. Then someone else had to be next to me… before I looked over MK was in the room covering my mouth.

"Look, it was cute, I had to take some pictures," she told me. It wasn't really processing through my brain. All I wanted to know was who was beside me. Slowly she let me look over. There slept none other than Zachary Goode. I screamed. For 2 minutes straight. It was a good thing MK had her hand over my mouth, along with some clothes to muffle the scream because I'm sure _everyone_ up and down the block would of woken if it weren't for that. After 10 minutes, she finally released me, and took her hands away from my mouth, along with the clothes.

"What the hell, MK," was the first thing out of my mouth. Wouldn't it be yours if you found your neighbor right beside you?!

"It's not like you two were under the same covers," MK replied rolling her eyes. As if on cue, Zach sneezed. "He's probably sick because he wasn't," she told me. I stared at her.

"Like I care," I snapped back.

"He has a game tonight, and he's our star I hear," MK responded. "Don't you have to get Kyle to play tonight?" she asked me.

"Shit that's right," I said sitting up. There was so much things going on too early for me. I was not ready to take on some of these things. "I have to get him to play tonight… crap."

"Oh come on. We can work on him at lunch. Right now you have _that_ to take over," she said with a snicker. She was pointing at the sleeping body next to me. I glared at her.

"Ha ha ha MK, maybe you should have the honors, since you started this whole thing," I said glaring. She stared at me. Then I saw a spark fly through her eyes, before I could think better MK was already on her plan to waking him up.

She grabbed me and made me stand up. "Let's get some breakfast," she told me. I stared at her and watched her every move. There was some little trap in this all. "First let's have you wake up Zach!" she told me as she pushed me down on top of Zach. Well of course then he wakes up. Just my luck right?

"Morning beautiful," he yawned while stretching. I sat there still as a rock. I didn't move an inch. "You going to get off of me anytime?" he asked me with a smirk. I blushed and tried to scramble up, but his strong arms caught me. "Hey, hey. Just because I was teasing you doesn't mean that's how I _felt_," he told me as he pulled me to his chest. I blushed so much. I was going to kill MK, bring her back from the dead, then kill her AGAIN. I could probably repeat the process over for quite some time.

"Well, if _you're_ not getting breakfast, I am," MK said with a giggle. She walked out of the room and closed the door.

"So how was the movie?" he asked me.

"Just fine," I mumbled into his chest.

"It must've been better than letting me into the house," he responded.

"Don't you have your own house to return to?" I asked him. I mean come on, seriously.

"I was locked out. Margaret Kaitlin down there wanted to make sure I couldn't escape." I looked up at him.

"Aren't your parents wondering where you are then?" I asked. If you were a normal parent that's what I would be thinking.

"Nah, my mom's already gone for work, and my dad's sleeping for another hour," he replied. He finally took his arms off of me and put them behind his head. I took it as my moment to get off of him. "Whoa, where do you think you're going?" he asked pulling me back down. I rolled my eyes. I was going to get no where this morning. I was probably even going to be _late_.

"Can I leave? I got breakfast to attend too," I told him. I probably wouldn't really eat, but I wanted to get out of his hold. This was so embarrassing.

"So if I take my arms off you, you leave. Do I have to keep you down?" he asked me, totally ignoring the statement I just said. I tried to push off him, but football player against me, I think he's going to win. "You'll probably get farther just not struggling," he told me. I was starting to get annoyed. This was all MK's fault. I then relaxed, this was getting no where.

"So you excited for the game tonight?" I asked changing the subject.

"Hell yeah, of course," he responded with a smile. I looked away. I could probably get a few more minutes worth of sleep.

"You're sure awake for just waking up," I said in a yawn. I closed my eyes, hoping for more sleep.

"Yeah, I have instincts. When you live here, you have no idea what could ambush you," he told me.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked in a slur. I think he picked up I was going for more sleep, because he didn't talk after that. Instead he put a blanket over me. I smiled and fell asleep.

~*~*~*~

"So, I see you're cheating on Kyle," MK's voice rang out. Slowly I rubbed my eyes. My head was buried into the pillow and I was lying on my stomach.

"What are you talking about?" I asked her. I was so confused.

"You're sleeping with another man, what's so confusing about that?" she questioned back.

"Me doing what?" I asked. This wasn't processing through my brain. I'm a little slow in the morning, or when ever I wake up.

"You, were sleeping, with ZACH," she told me, trying to get it through my brain.

"Yeah, all because of you," I replied. I didn't want to wake up with him next to me, but it happened because of _her_.

"Nnnnnnoooooooo, don't give me that," she smiled. I rolled my eyes. I really didn't have to put up with that. I stood up and went to my bed, where Macey had laid out my uniform. "So who are you going to pick, Cam? The Goode boy or loving sweet Kyle?" she asked me. I really wanted to snap on her, but something told me not to.

"Why am I picking up the vibe you want me to be with Zach?" I asked her. After all, she did shove me on top of him.

"No, I'm not picking sides. I just want to give each time a fair shot with you," she said smiling. I paled. She had something up her sleeve, and something was coming up. "Plus I'm helping you," she said in a teasing voice. I glared.

"How are you helping me? Helping me get expelled? I asked. I don't think Dr. Steve would be very pleased when he found out that two of his _high school_ students were sleeping together. Yeah, I don't think that would fly over very well.

"No, not in that sense. Don't you think Zach will tell some people about his 'experiences'?" I didn't want to know where she was going with all of this. "Don't you think it'll go through Kyle's ear? Don't you think those two may get a little competitive?" she asked me. Oh, if she thought that this was going to get him on the team…

"You think that's going to convince him to get on the team?" I demanded. I thought MK was smart, not that bone-headed stupid.

"Yeah, if Zach says the right things, I'm sure he could get Kyle on the team," she told me confidently. I groaned. I didn't remember MK to be this stupid. Some things don't blow over well. I'm sure this was going to be one of those things.

"Well, I'm just going to go eat breakfast," I replied.

"Yeah, there's a problem. We're leaving now. Actually we're a little behind," MK replied shaking her thumb over her shoulder. I went out to the balcony and looked to the left. Yeah, I saw the dim silhouette of Grant and Mace.

"Crap!" I shouted, probably a little loud for the morning. I ran back into the house and quickly get the rest of my uniform on, such as my socks. We ran down the stairs and I quickly slipped on my flats, while MK tied up her tennis shoes. We hurried and ran out the door.

"Hey Gallagher Girl!" I looked behind my back to see Zach catching up with us. I blushed and looked away. Not the person to see, but who else would I expect? It's not like I'm going to see any other person along the way to school. MK and I still kept running towards the school, but Zach caught up with us. "What's the rush? We're only about 5 minutes behind track," I told us. I rolled my eyes. I'd rather be right on track.

"Yeah, but she likes to be _on_ track," MK voiced my thoughts. Zach shook his head, but ran with us anyways. We caught up with Grant and Mace.

"Hey Cam!" Grant called. I don't know why, but as I heard Zach and MK start to slow down and fall in step with them, I wanted to keep on going. So I did.

"UH BYE CAM?" Grant called after me. I smiled. My brother was slow, but sometimes just that could make me smile. I kept on running.

"Run like the wind Cammie!" Mace yelled sarcastically at me. I heard footsteps. Hm, bet it's Zach. I threw my arms out for the fun of it and stopped, just to soak up the sun. The footsteps ran past me but then stopped and retracked.

"Having fun running?" MK asked me. I opened my eyes. I looked at her and grinned. Then I started sprinting. "NO FAIR! YOU GOT A HEAD START!" MK yelled as she ran after me. We were having a race, and I was pretty confident I was going to win. I had a lead, and I was a better runner than I used to be. Then MK went zipping by. So much for me winning. I heard Grant laugh at us, and I ran harder trying to catch up. Damn her and her legs. She was so athletically talented it was amazing. We reached the school with no one in sight.

"Are we early?" I asked panting, putting my hands on my knees. MK shrugged.

"You tell me, I'm new here," she responded. I looked at her a smiled. She always was like that. "So how are you going to talk to Joe and Tyler Dhine?" she asked me after like 5 minutes. I sat down and looked up at her.

"You had to mention," I said. She laughed. "I have no idea what I'm going to say, but most likely I'm going to tell them straight up _not_ to call me over 100 times. 50 is even pushing it." She nodded and leaned against the school building. She was breathing normally while I was panting like a dog. Yep, noooooooo stamina. "I heard the winter Olympics are this year," I said starting up another conversation. Now people were starting to arrive and go into the school. I felt sort of like an idiot panting outside the door. Not the usual image I had.

"Yeah-"

"Cammie~!" we looked over and saw Bex running at me. "Let's go," she said smiling and grabbing my arm. We ran inside, leaving MK standing alone. Then she realised what happened and came after us.

"So why are you so excited today?" MK asked Bex. She had a huge grin on her face.

"You'll see," she replied.

"You'll see."

* * *

Yea~! Finally an update! Sorry for the wait, hockey and AP classes have been KILLING me. It's not every sport you have 5 frickin' hours of practice everyday besides Sunday, and still expected to have your homework done. Ah well. Review. C:


	25. Game Time

Here's the deal, I'll publish whatever I have at the end of the week. Expect something by at least Sunday. More reviews, more pumped to write.

* * *

She led us to the gym, but wouldn't let us go in.

"Alright, Bex. You brought us here. Now what?" MK asked. She smiled, then she swung the door open. Kyle was shooting baskets, just like every other day.

"Okay, Bex. Kyle's shooting baskets like he normally does," I told her. "So what?" then she pointed at another boy walking around with an air of cockiness surrounding him.

"Oh snap. She got everything planed," MK replied grinning. I half-smiled, not really meaning it. But then it all clicked.

"Oh, you two had _all_ of this planned," I replied putting two together. They smiled at each other. "Oh jezum, you guys SUCK!" I yelled. That got Kyle _and_ Zach's attention. Zach started walking over towards me; Kyle threw the basketball over his shoulder with a smile and started jogging towards me. Ah great, exactly what they wanted to happen. "When I get done with this I will murder you two separately, bring you to life, then kill you _AGAIN_," I whisper-yelled at them. They smiled.

"Hey, Cammie," Kyle smiled. He was all sweaty, looked as if we was practicing for a while.

"Hey babe," Zach smirked as he came up to me. Kyle looked at him. That's when Zach made his move. He slung an arm over my shoulder. Kyle's eyes widened, actually widened. I don't think that I'd ever seen that before. "What's going on?" he asked pulling me closer. I glanced at Bex and MK, they obviously had something planned.

"Babe? What's with that?" Kyle asked looking between us. "What's up with the arm?" he asked further on, motioning his arm at Zach's arm which was draped over me.

"Well, being a star football player, of course I get all the babes," Zach replied with cockiness, more than usual. I looked at Bex and MK, they both looked impressed. Oh, they had ALL of this planned out. Even what people _say_. Plus Zach didn't normally speak out that he was a player...

"Cammie?" Kyle looked at me in disbelief. I stood there silent. I had no idea what was going on.

"Nah, babe, don't talk to him. He's just some dumb basketball jock," Zach told me looking at me.

"What, are you any better?" he replied, pissed off. His eyes that were normally sleepy were wide awake. "You're a girl-snatching thief, better yet a damn football player," Kyle fired off. Uh, I didn't like the way this was going.

"Oh yeah? Well did you think that maybe I get all the hot chicks _because_ I'm a football player?" Zach asked him. I looked at Kyle. He was really pissed. Then something flickered through his eyes.

"Oh, I know what you're trying to do," he replied going back to his normal self, "you're trying to get me to play football," he finished. He's a pretty smart boy you know. We stood in silence for a good 3 minutes, no one speaking or moving. It was quite uncomfortable.

"Damnnit will you just play?" Zach asked. He dropped the arm.

"Come on, we really need you," Bex added. I looked over. Her and MK were putting on pouting faces. It was really weird to see them like that, considering we were juniors.

"You are our last hope in getting _anywhere_," MK chipped in. Kyle looked at me.

"This wasn't your idea, quite obvious, but what do you think?" he asked me. I looked behind me and around me. Wait, he was talking to me.

"Wait, _me_?" I asked pointing at myself.

"What other person is there?" MK barked at me. I shrugged, I guess it was pretty stupid thinking on my part. Bex, MK and Zach were ALL staring at me. I was expected to say yes.

"Yeah," I replied. "I think it would be fun." He stared at me, which made me very uncomfortable.

"Aw hell, what do I have to loose," he replied as he walked back into the gym. It was silent once he left. Zach looked taken back, and Bex looked a little sad maybe even a little ashamed. MK and I just stood there wondering what the heck just went on. Kyle was already half way in and was picking up a basketball. "So when's the next game?" he shouted across the gym.

"Like tonight," I replied. He did a double take and he shoot was WAY off. Another thing you NEVER see with Kyle. He turned around.

"Tonight?" he asked. I nodded my head. "What position do I have to fill?" he asked Zach.

"Nothing tough, just QB," Zach replied. Kyle flopped down on the floor. He ran his hands through his hair, more or less getting it out of his face. Then the bell rang. We all stood for a second as students went flooding past us every direction.

"We're going to be late," Bex told me as she grabbed my hand. I looked at the trio. MK was antsy, probably because she hated being late for class. Bex was looking annoyed that I would get going. Zach flashed me a grin then disappeared. It was weird. He was there, then he wasn't. I looked back at Kyle. He was just staring off into the distance, wonder what the heck he was going to do for tonight. Then something flickered across his eyes again. He looked at me and grinned, then he got up and came running toward me.

"I'm going to have to borrow Cammie for a day," he told Bex as he took my hand out of her grasp.

"She can't skip class everyday or she'll fai-"

"Thanks, see you guys at the game." With that Kyle grabbed my hand and lead me back into the gym. He let go off me by the door and he shut it. I looked at him questioningly as he smiled at me. "Let's go," he told me as we ran across the gym to the locker rooms.

"You don't expect me to go in there do you?" I asked as he pushed open the boys locker room door with his back, still holding my hand.

"Ah- No. Meet me outside, not in uniform," he told me as he ran into the locker room. I sighed wondering what the hell he was planning to do, but still went into the locker room to change into regular clothes.

~*~*~*~*~

"So you're making me skip class to help you with football?" I asked him making sure I heard him right.

"You want me to play?" he asked me as he tossed me the football. I shrugged. I wanted him to play but that didn't mean I wanted to skip all of my classes.

"You want me to skip all of my classes?" I asked back. He shrugged.

"Depends. Do you want me to do good?" he asked.

"What does that have to do with skipping classes?" I asked. Other athletes don't skip classes and they can still play great.

"Well, I haven't thrown a football since about 5th grade. So-"

"Alright I get it," I replied. I threw it back.

"Nice arm," he complemented as he threw it back. "Now try to get a straighter throw." I looked at him funny.

"What does _that_ mean?" I questioned back. Was he trying to diss me or what was going on here?

"You throw it really high up. You want it to snap straight. Sort of like… this," he responded as he threw a perfect hard back right into my arms.

"Ooooh," I replied getting it. "You make catching things easy," I told him as I threw it back, still letting it hang high in the air.

"I used to play with Zach all the time. We were the neighborhood kids who would play until dusk everyday," he replied zoning out a little. We just kept passing. Then he started having me run all these plays. It was fun. He would get so into it, dodge the sac, start running back, run it himself, it was funny to watch him. It just made me laugh. We worked on his footwork and everything he thought was essential for the game. Then we would go back to passing.

"So you guys having fun?" we looked over at the chain linked fence and Zach was watching us. It was a little weird, but more or less funny.

"You bet we are," Kyle replied. That's when I noticed how sweaty we were. I didn't know we got so into it. I laughed while they looked at me like I was weird. I guess I would too if one of my friends just laughed out of no where. Next thing I knew I heard the chain fence rattling, and Zach hopping over.

"Hope you don't mind if I join then," he replied. We stared at him. He was still in his uniform, the navy pants, the tie… the sweater they were forced to wear…

"You're really practicing in _that_?" Kyle asked. Zach looked himself up and down and gave him the 'what' sign. Kyle and I shared a glance but ignored the clothes. It wasn't our problem if he got them torn or smelled funny for the rest of the day. "HIKE!" Kyle called out a play, I'm sure that Zach didn't hear. Zach smirked as he ran out to position himself to defend me. Before he knew it I was doing a fish hook and he was caught WAY off guard. I caught the ball and ran all the way to get a touch down. Then I jogged back to Zach who was laying stomach to the grass.

"Too good for you?" I asked. He grabbed my ankle and pulled me down.

"Nope, just a reason why I play wide receiver," he replied as he yanked the ball from my grasp. He got up and threw the ball back to Kyle. Kyle caught the ball, mixed emotions running across his face.

"HUDDLE!" he called as I ran back to him. He looked a little out of it.

"Just like old times," I told him. He looked up at me.

"I always thought that it was just throwing the ball to Zach," he muttered. I stared at him. He shook it off and told me the play. We continued to run plays and out smart Zach. We laughed sometimes because he was being funny, other times we ran amazing plays. Before we knew it some of the varsity football players started flooding the field. I took it as the time to leave when they all started surrounding Kyle and shouting at him, in a good way.

I walked off the turf, and was almost out of the door when someone whispered in my ear, "Thanks." I quickly spun around. It really surprised me. The scary thing? No one was there.

~*~*~*~*~

I arrived at the dome early. I didn't want to miss a single bit of this game. I made it around the time when they came running out onto the field. The stands were already packed.

"MOVE IT!" Mace _screamed_ at everyone. They all backed away as Grant and I embarrassedly trailed after her. "Front row seats," she told me as we stood at the very beginning of the bleachers.

"Yeah, but not the greatest seats of the house," Grant replied. He was a little agitated.

"Fine, lead me to the seat you think are the best," Mace snapped at Grant. For a little freshman she was sure pushy. Grant rolled his eyes as he lead us up higher.

"How are these better seats? It's just more walking. Grant, we just wasted great seats for this?!" she kept complaining as we made our way higher and higher up.

"Grant-"

"SHUT UP, MACEY!" Grant barked back at her. He was obviously pissed off she kept complaining. We reached a clear bleacher at the very back of the high school section.

"Well, these seats are probably-"

"Pretty. Damn. Good," I finished for her. We were at the very top, where we could see every play being done. We could watch what every football player was doing and the plays being set up.

"Thank you," Grant huffed as he sat down. We were so far up that we had a good 5 bleachers on all the students. We saw the whole team stretching, doing their warm-ups and whatever else they were doing. Then they called the starting line ups and sung the star-spangled-banner. Next thing we knew the kick off was about to begin. I looked at the bleachers. I saw two boys talking with each other. Two boys named Heag and Goode. I smiled. I thought they hated each other over me. Maybe I was all wrong and they were actually good friends that never talked any more. They both spun around and started searching the crowd. I had no idea who they were looking for. So I looked away. I tired to look for something, or someone that looked like they were looking for them too.

"Cammie!" my attention went down a few bleachers to some kid I had never seen before.

"Uh, hi??" I asked back.

"Heag and Goode are asking for you," he told me. Then he disappeared into the sea of students. I looked back at the boys and they were motioning me to come down. I got up and ran down the bleachers. I had to pass by so much people to get to them, it was a hassle. I finally got to them as they were changing the defensive line to offensive.

"Wait here," Zach called to me as the two hustled out with their team. So I walked to the edge of the bleachers and sat on the turf. Front row seat, lucky me. Too bad the plays were going on at the total opposite side of the field. I heard them call out a play and in an instant everyone was moving at amazing speeds. Suddenly there was a kid in front of me, I watched in awe. I looked down field and saw the ball coming straight for him. If he caught this it would be a touchdown for sure, no one was even 10 feet by him. I watched as the ball fell perfectly into his grasp and he sprinted the rest of about 25 yards. I stared at this amazing 24. That's when I realized it was Zach. Shit, he was even better up close. He was crazy fast, perfect for his position. I watched as the 11 boys all ran together and pretty much jumped. It was funny to watch. Then they came off the field. Kyle was grinning like crazy.

"You look like you're having fun," I smiled. He just shook his head in that weird way when a guy's a little embarrassed.

"Like my touchdown, Gallagher Girl?" Zach asked. I noticed that he was already sweaty and wet while he was fresh and clean not even 6 minutes ago.

"Without my pass it wouldn't of happened," Kyle smiled. They stared at each other, as if trying to beat the other person out in a staring competition.

"Why the hell is there a girl by our bleachers?!" I quickly started to leave but was grabbed by Kyle and Zach. I was positive it was the coach. I looked over. Yep, it was the coach.

"She's doing us a favor," Kyle replied.

"Got a problem?" Zach asked. The coach stared at them with a glare, but finally gave up.

"You two are out," he muttered, then walked away.

"Wait just one more second," Zach told me. I rolled my eyes. I was most likely going to have to stay here the whole night. I turned around a minute to look back up at Grant. He gave me the universal 'what' sign, but I could only shrug. That made the whole bleachers laugh for some reason. I turned around and the next thing I knew 24 was blowing past me again. I stared as Zach got another touchdown. I stood in awe. They were 2 for 2 today. They scored on every drive so far. They were unstoppable against this team. They did that weird jumping celebration again. I laughed. Then they came back again to ask me something, but then the coach needed to talk to them. So I was going to leave, but no. they tell me to stay. This probably went on for the whole first quarter. I was starting to get sick of it. I just wanted to watch the game. Things just had to get worse.

"Hey you alone?" I looked over to see Jack with a broken arm.

"How'd you get that?" I asked him.

"Your brother," he said normally. I raised my eyebrow. No wonder he was in pain. But with his screaming, I thought he broke some ribs and a leg too.

"Oh, that's too bad," I replied. "I mean, I'm sorry," I quickly added on. I didn't want to make it sound like I liked or wanted him hurt.

"I'll forgive you if we mingle," he answered me. I looked at him.

"What?" I asked barely audible. I didn't think I heard it right.

"Hey, quit bothering her!" I looked over to see Zach coming straight at Jack. Suddenly Zach plowed over Jack, broken wrist and all. Our whole bleachers erupted, not for a good reason. I mean this was a fight in their own school.

"Zach, knock it off!" I looked over to see Kyle prying Zach off of Jack who was trying to get his shot in.

"He stole your french-fries!" some kid yelled. Some people laughed. Finally the two were broken apart, Jack with a black eye and Zach still wanting to hurt.

"This is why we don't have girls down here!" the coach started yelling. I cringed.

"Sorry," I said in a whisper. He looked at me.

"What do you have to do with any of it? These boys would've _tackled_ you to keep you here. Well now you know not to have girls down here _during_ the game!" he went on scolding Zach and Kyle. They were both grinning at each other, looking like they were having the time of their life getting yelled at. I rolled my eyes. I left despite them yelling at me, and their coach yelling at them about how they hadn't learned their lesson. I walked up to where I was sitting.

"So what was all of that about?" Grant asked me as I sat down.

"Boys," I replied. I didn't say another word. All I wanted to do now was to watch the game. Next thing you knew our team was doing some crazy play that should never, I repeat, NEVER, should have worked. Okay, so they were around the 50, and we got the ball, we threw a short pass, and the other team started retreating, when the guy was about to get hit, he did a lateral to the person behind him. They kept repeating the process until we were at our 20. then Kyle launched the ball way down field and Zach stood there, no one 50 yards near him. He ran in for the touchdown. I watch amazed, wondering how the hell that play worked. The scored stood 42-0 at the end of the half time. We sat and watched our slutty little cheerleaders try to do something cute, but looking like a mess. They were so uncoordinated. It was embarrassing. The game kept going by, and our score kept going up at an unbelievable pace. Every time we rushed we scored. Finally they stopped with the first line and let the others fill in, which was sad considering we were playing at a varsity level. By the end of the game they stopped adding the score. It was a huge blow out. It was pathetic. I walked down the bleachers after pretty much everyone had gone. The boys already had head to the locker room after their 2 minute speech. The coach probably kept it short, considering the other team was probably pissed we ran up the score uncontrollably.

That was probably why I was surprised two boys fully dressed waiting for me at the end of the bleachers. I looked around; there were no other players.

"What are you guys doing out here? Aren't you supposed to be getting changed?" I asked them.

"Yeah well we still needed to ask you something," Zach replied. I stood there waiting. I gave them the spill signal.

"Which one of us do you like?"

Aw shit, there went my somewhat good day.


	26. Section finals

These next few chapters are going to pertain a lot to football… so sorry if you don't understand some of the stuff I'm saying (heck, I don't even know everything).

* * *

"Um, I have to go," I replied sneaking out of it. I quickly ran out of sight and merged in with the huge crowd, delayed because our dome doors weren't big enough for this big of a crowd. I quickly wove my way through the crowd, as I heard their cleats running to keep up with me. Then I heard the cheers and I knew I was safe, the crowd was probably congratulating them. I quickly got out of the place and made a dart for the first 2 blocks. I looked behind me to make sure that no one was behind me, then turned and ran to the ice cream shop about a block away. I walked in the shop and the lady behind the counter smiled wide at me.

"Well hello there, Cammie. I'm assuming you went to the game," she replied. I looked down. I was wearing a black north face zip up and jeans. I had uggs underneath. I had a gray black and white ribbon on my pony tail. I shrugged. I saw where she was coming from. Plus I did go. "So how's your stay here?" I went and sat down at the counter. You got to love those little bar stools that spin.

"It' fun," I replied. "Can I have a tall chocolate shake?"

"Sure thing, honey. So how was the game?" she asked as she turned her back to me and started to make my shake.

"It was okay, we slaughtered the other team though," I replied watching her make my shake. It was interesting. I wish I could try making it once. It was super simple although. I used to make malts but shakes were different. Well I thought so anyways.

"Slaughter is a strong word, dearie. What was the score?"

"They stopped adding about 2 minutes into the second half. At that time it was 73-0."

"They did kill them!" I chuckled. She was funny. "Here ya go, sweetheart," she told me as she spun me my shake. I grinned as I ate my shake. Then the door chime went off. Someone was coming in. I had a bad feeling; I think I knew who it was.

"Cammie?" I turned around to see Zach and Kyle _both_ with the little kid from before. I did a small wave.

"OH little Tommy, how are you?" she asked as the little kid came up to the stool.

"I want the regular," the boy said as he struggled to get up on the stool. He was about 6. Kyle came and helped him up. "So what's your name?" 'Tommy asked me as he finally got situated on the stool.

"I'm Cammie," I told him in a smile. He was so cute! He had dirty blond hair, regular cut. The front was a little spiked. He had cute hazel eyes and he looked athletic. He kind of looked like Kyle with some of the same facial features. But his eyes widened after I said my name.

"_YOU'RE_ Cammie?" the little kid asked. I nodded my head. I saw Kyle blush out of the side of my eye. "Kyle ALWAYS talks about you!" I blushed. Zach and the counter lady (whose name I think was Marissa) cracked up. That was embarrassing.

"Tommy, I thought we had this talk," Kyle muttered to him. Tommy looked up at Kyle.

"Oh the one about how I'm not supposed to tell Cammie that you always talk about her?" I saw Kyle put his hand over his face as Zach laughed even harder. "What'd I say~? Why is everyone laughing?" Tommy asked as he looked around in confusion.

"Nothing, babe, nothing," Marissa told him as he looked at her. She slid him his chocolate ice cream.

"Thank you," Tommy told her as he went face first into his ice cream. I swear that thing was gone in less that a minute. It was a large bowl!

"So are you guys brothers?" I asked as Tommy polished up the bowl.

"You bet we are," Tommy grinned with his face full of chocolate. I grabbed a napkin and offered it to him. "Why do people always give me napkins after ice cream?" he asked a little annoyed.

"Maybe because your face is always a mess," Kyle told him.

"Not alwayssss!" Tommy fired back.

"Yes alwayssss!" Kyle mimicked his little brother.

"Are we going to go soon?" Tommy asked already heading for the door.

"Whoa little buddy, we got to _pay_ first," Kyle told Tommy as he was almost out the door.

"Oh," he replied. "THANK YOU!" with that he left the store. Kyle rolled his eyes and pulled out his wallet and handed her some money.

"I'll pay for hers," he told Marissa. She raised an eyebrow.

"I can pay for my own," I said. I didn't want him treating me. I would've paid for it anyways.

"Well I don't want change. So you can pay me back later if you must," Kyle told me as he put his wallet away. "But right now I have to go find my little brother." We walked outside and saw Tommy a half a block ahead. We had to run to catch up with him, since he didn't want to wait for us.

When we were about 8 blocks away, Tommy started getting tired. "Kyle, I'm tired," he announced. I looked at Kyle. He looked exhausted.

"Sorry, bud. No can do."

"Kyyyyyyyyyleeeeeeeee."

"What am I supposed to do?" Kyle asked him nicely.

"Call mom and get us a ride," Tommy replied yawning.

"Hey Tommy," I called out. He finally stopped. I was a little surprised, considering he wouldn't listen to Kyle and Zach. I wouldn't expect him to react to me. "Do you want me to carry you?" His eyes widened and he smiled as he came running towards me. I lifted him up. Soon enough he was asleep.

"Was he at the game?" I asked Kyle.

"Nope, mom came with him and told me to take him to get ice cream because he was a good boy today or something. He didn't do anything bad at school or something? Here, I can carry him-"

"." the three of us looked over at Tommy, whose eyelids were falling down. "I like Cammmiieeee." I chuckled.

"See? I'm the best," I told Kyle. Zach laughed. Whoa. I forgot about Zach for a while. He was very quiet for the walk. We walked in silence until we got to my house.

"Here," Kyle said putting his arms out. But then Tommy started whining again. He didn't want to go home. So I gave in and let him come into my house. I shut the door. Then there was a knock. I shifted Tommy to one arm and opened the door.

"Are we not allowed in? Because he's my little brother…" Kyle trailed off. I laughed. I had just shut Kyle and Zach out of my house when I still had Kyle's little brother.

"Did you ever think I was kidnapping him?" I asked Kyle.

"Oh you can have him," he replied. I chuckled.

"Who are we kidnapping?" Grant's voice trailed in.

"Tommy," I called back.

"Who's Tommy?" Grant questioned confused.

"He's our new little brother," I replied. I heard Grant jump off the couch.

"I always wanted another boy in the hou-" he stopped mid-sentence when he saw Zach and Kyle. "Hey, nice punch," he told Zach.

"Thanks!" Zach said, I'm assuming happy Grant was complementing him. I rolled my eyes and went inside to the living room. I set Tommy on the couch but he was so persistent and made me sit by him.

"Want to watch a movie?" Grant asked Tommy.

"Yeah," Tommy yawned. He would be fast asleep in moments. We watched the beginning of the movie cars and he was fast asleep. There was a knock at the door. Grant went to go answer it.

"Uh, Cammie? I think Kyle's mom is here," he told me coming back into the living room. Kyle got up and went to the front. Next thing I knew I saw Kyle come get Tommy and they left. Well Grant being Grant, after Kyle left he kicked Zach out of the house. We turned off the tv and went to bed too. I got to my room and saw MK fast asleep. I smiled as I laid on the ground, waiting for the next game.

~*~*~*~

(2 weeks later, Friday)

Our football team had been doing great, they earned their way into sections, and tonight was the night where we learned if we were state material or not. The whole school was going crazy, and everyone was out of uniform. It was crazy. The teachers stopped handing out fines because too many people were out of uniform.

"CAMMIE!" I turned around as Bex jumped on my back.

"Hey Bex," I replied grinning. Our whole school was excited.

"You pumped for the game tonight?" she asked jumping. I mocked her and started jumping.

"OF COURSE I AM!" I replied. She stopped jumping and rolled her eyes. Then some boys went running down the halls spraying silly string over everyone. Some girls screamed and the boys were laughing. This whole school had so much energy it was crazy.

A boy came running up to us and put his arms around both our shoulders."WHO'S GOING TO WIN TONIGHT?!"

"WE ARE!" we both shouted back. We smiled at each other.

"YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" some boys went screaming down the halls. I laughed as everyone was so energetic. Everyone was at least 30 minutes early today, it was surprising.

"KNIGHTS, KNIGHTS, KNIGHTS!" boys were running up and down the halls chanting. I laughed. The boys were going super crazy.

"STUDENTS, STUDENTS MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!" we all quieted down a little as the intercom went on. If it wasn't important enough we wouldn't listen. "WE KNOW THAT YOU ARE ALL EXCITED-" every one erupted into cheers, everyone going nuts. "STUDENTS, STUDENTS PLEASE! TODAY WE WILL BE OUT OF CLASS 45 MINUTES EARLY FOR A PEP FEST. THANK YOU." People started screaming and the boys went bezerk. I laughed as everyone was in a good mood. I smiled wishing MK could be here with us, she'd have great ideas for energy and she would probably be going crazy too. Too bad she had to go back to Gallagher. But I smiled thinking of the team she created. We preformed at every pep fest so I'm sure the girls were super excited. I thought of the 18 girls who helped us out for us to make a team. Then the first bell rung and we left for class.

~*~*~*~

"Alright class, you are dismissed." We all ran out of the classroom to our lockers. We were so excited for tonight. During lunch someone went off campus to buy one of those fog horn type things. You could hear them blowing it half way across the school. I smiled as everyone went wild. We all slowly made our way to the gym. I cut and went to the lunch room. The whole team was there already, and our coach Meghan. MK was kind enough to find someone and get us organized.

"You girls excited?" Meghan asked us as we smiled.

"YEAH!" we all shouted back. She laughed.

"Well, we're out in about 5. You girls can talk," she told us. Then she walked out of the lunch room.

"Oh my gosh, this is so amazing," Tiffany told us as she started smiling. "This is so much fun and this year our football team is actually getting somewhere!"

"Yeah, it's all because of Kyle, which _Cammie_ got to play," Maki turned grinning at me.

"If it weren't for her and MK, we wouldn't have a football team _or_ a dance team!" Hannah told them. They all agreed.

"You guys, it's a team thing," I smiled thinking of the cheesiness.

"Come on Cammie, get something new to say," Bex told me as we started stretching again.

"Well, I'm saying let's concentrated on this new dance and get our school even more excited," I smiled. Everyone cheered, and before we knew it Meghan was back.

"Show time ladies!" she announced as we all got lined up, and ready to go. The only thing about our team was that instead of a dance, it was more of a competition cheer. But that was okay. It would be fun. Before we knew it we were entering the gym smiling. Everyone started cheering. I'm sure they were expecting something amazing, and we never seemed to let them down.

"Ready ladies?" Meghan whispered. We all put our smiles on and before the song even started we all side jumped and fell down into a push up. Then we laid down. That was Meghan's cue to start the music. Suddenly the lights went out and then suddenly the spotlight was on the Bex.

She started spinning in circles as Black Eyed Peas Let's Get It Started came on. Suddenly the lights were on and then we were pushing of the ground so it looked like we were going to jump up, except we stayed in a push up position. Then we went full out into our routine we made up not even 2 weeks ago. It was so thrilling to be performing. We went through tons of songs, each transitioning easily. Finally we ended with cheers erupting. I grinned as everyone clapped for us. I saw the person recording the dance and I waved at them. It was a video that I was going to send to MK.

I heard footsteps run down to the front as they started cheers. I laughed as we ran out of the room. The football game was tonight. I had a feeling we were going to win it.

~*~*~*~

I ran to the stadium after I got out of the car. I ran into the stadium past the girls on the dance squad and into the dome. I ran to the very front to see us kick off the ball. We were playing the toughest team in our section, the Scottsdale huskies. Our whole team cheered as we hit them down at their own 2 yard line.

I shouted as the whole front line cheered. I saw 2 boys pick up my voice right away. I was a little shocked how they recognized my shout so simply, so I disappeared back to the school before anything got started. I jogged into the girls locker room where everyone got ready.

"Why do we have to miss the first half?" I asked. "It gets me so anxious!" everyone laughed as I jumped up and down.

"Morgan, are you ever going to get ready?" Meghan asked me. I looked around and realized I was the only one still in regular clothing and not in costume.

"Uh, yeah," I replied as I started changing. Everyone laughed as I quickly changed into costume so we wouldn't get yelled at.

"Well why do all dance teams do this?" I asked.

"Because I say so," she replied. "Everyone else's dance team has already stopped performing so let's make this sweet, so everyone else wish they had people like us," she told us. I smiled.

"Yeah well no one else dances like us," I whispered to Bex. She grinned.

"Alright girls, let's start practicing." I rolled my eyes as we got up to the gym to practice. There goes a waste of a hour.

~*~*~*~

"And here are your Knight performers, the dance team!" the crowd cheered as we ran out onto the field. We were technically going to do the same dance, but with a few edits. I wondered how well this would go on the turf. It was only our second time performing on turf, and this dance was a whole lot more sophisticated. We all got into position as Bex stood up. The song started and we started out the same way. Everyone cheered, but it was sort of uncertain. We never performed the same dance, which was unusual for other teams. For us, if we did the same thing it was strange. We did the same thing but after the intro to Let's Get it Started, the song switched over to Tick Tock by Kesha. The crowd erupted as we changed up the songs and moves. We were doing two person cart wheels and doing flips. We were more like a competition cheer team rather than a fall dance team. We performed for about 3 more minutes and ended with a jump that we always did. As we did it our whole student section would join and we would get a huge noise. We ran off the field and went into the school as some people walked out onto the field to play catch or something. I looked at the score board and I saw it was a low scoring game, 3-0 them. So we seemed to be a fairly evenly matched team.

I walked in as the football players started flooding out of the locker room. A lot of them wolf whistled and stared as we walked by. We just kept our heads held high and tried to ignore them. That was hard when some started following us. I felt some of the girls walk faster to pass me. I felt their discomfort. So I spun around.

"Knock it off and go out to the field," I sharply stated as I glared at the few boys following.

"Aren't you going to wish us good luck?" Kyle asked. I stared at him as he and Zach and Joe and Dhine and other people cut off the way to outside.

"Good luck." With that I spun around and went to follow my team.

"That's it?!"

"Maybe there'll be more if we gain the lead." With that I heard their cleats hit the tiles as they ran out to the field. I walked to the locker room and changed. We all left and some went to the bleachers, some went home. Bex and I headed toward the bleachers. We walked up the section and sat by Grant and Mace.

"You did great, babe," Grant told Bex as they hugged. I rolled my eyes. Did I forget to tell you? They're an 'item'. A 'thing'. Mace made a gagging noise. They smiled. We watched as they kicked off back to us. I saw Joe (I had no idea he was the one who always received the kick off) catch it and run it up about 40 yards. We were at the fifty. I saw Kyle run out with Zach. I crossed my fingers and prayed that they would score. I heard them call off the calls and then they were in motion. Kyle faked the pass then dodged a sac and threw it as hard as he could down field as the person who missed earlier come back to try again. We all saw the ball up in the air. I was smart this time and watched the players on the field. There was a whole group running for the ball, then it was a few, next there were two, then you saw 24 running with super speed, breaking away from the other player. Next thing you knew he had the ball and we was running about 10 yards for the game's first touchdown. Everyone went crazy on our side. The fog horns were going off, the how bleachers were shaking, it was nuts. The kicker kicked the ball and it was good. The score stood 3-7 us. I smiled as the rest of the game went on, us leading the rest of the time. It came down to the last 4 minutes, when they finally got the lead. We all stood nervously in the stands. I was hugging Bex, nervously waiting for our chance. We were down to the last 2 minutes and they had the ball. They were just running down the clock and we were getting antsy. They had Zach out there, most likely because they needed their best out. There was about 1 minute left and the score stood 10-7. suddenly their QB whipped it and it was heading straight for a player going for the end zone. Suddenly a kid jumped out of no where and intercepted the pass. He started sprinting and before we knew it he was down at their 45, 25, 10 yards within, touchdown. We all started screaming. Bex and I started jumping up and down. The kid was going nuts, he jumped on the post and then flipped off. The whole sidelines were yelling, and the energy was now on our side. We kicked the ball and the score stood and 10-14. there was less then a minute and we were hoping to keep them from scoring. Our wish was answered. 45 seconds later our team won. The whole high school section flooded onto the field. It was amazing. We were going to state. The whole football team had dog piled and got up to only get surrounded by the other high school students. I smiled as Bex and I were the only ones standing of the bleachers standing in amazement at how far our team had gone. They started at the worst to being the best. I smiled.

Everyone started clearing the field after a while. Bex and I just sat in silence soaking it in. Suddenly there was clanking on the bleachers and I was wrapped up in a hug. I opened my eyes but only saw a jersey. It was gray and obviously from our team. I sat in wondering who it was, as I slowly hugged the player back. Bex giggled and I heard her leave.

"Uh, who is this?" I asked curious. I mean I couldn't see anything. He chuckled and I saw it was Kyle.

"Well congrats on the win," I told him. He smiled like he was back in second grade.

"We're going to state," he whispered. I nodded. He hugged me again. I laughed, seeing how excited Kyle was on his usually passive face.

I smiled at the thought.

Our team was going to state for the first time in school history.


	27. pregame warm ups

Have you guys ever typed with a ring pop on your finger? Its really weird. Ha ha ha. Anyways, sorry I haven't written in like forever! That idea did not work at all! But it's like winter break now! Yippee! :D

* * *

So everyone's excited. Woo hoo, we get to go to state! Question was, were we going to get anywhere once we got in? I guess we've always had a weak conference, and a weak section and so you get the point about the teams we face. So everyone was a little nervous when they heard we were going to play the Koochiching Ravens. I laughed when I first heard the name. Koochiching? What kind of name is that? But whenever I said that name everyone else seemed to shrink a little.

The Friday of state we all met up in the parking lot. It was so much different. Everyone was a little quieter. Some of it was the awe of the stadium, it was so nice. But the other thing was I'm sure fear. None of the boys were running around with silly string, no one was yelling. The feeling was low. I thought it would be funny if I said one of those cheesy little speeches. But that's what always happens right? I needed something different… like a skit. I smiled as I thought something up. Suddenly there were murmurs, I was sure people knew I was planning something. Because I always think up something. I quickly grabbed the nearest person and ran across the parking lot. A few tagged along. In all I had about 4 people. I grinned as I explained what we were going to do.

~*~*~*~

We came back out and every one was staring at us. I laughed. They were expecting something. Since when was I the pep rally starter? Scratch that, it was probably the cheer gig thing. I put down the end of a pick up and sat on the end of the truck.

"So are we excited?" I asked. I didn't really get a reply. Make that no reply. No one said _anything_.

"Hell yeah!" I spun around to see Zach fully dressed. I turned back around.

"Besides those who are playing?" Nothing. Absolute zero. Zip. No sound.

"What are your issues? Get pumped!" I looked back at Zach. He looked so excited to be there, but you could tell he was nervous. I needed something funny to lighten the mood.

"You guys ever hear of that Asian football player?" I asked. Everyone did a double take. Then the murmurs started.

"Asian?"

"Who is she talking about?"

I laughed as everyone was getting _super_ confused. "Like how about Hikaru?" I asked. That just got everyone even more confused.

"OMG! Don't worry _GUYS_, I am HERE!" suddenly an Asian kid came bursting out of the car. He was wearing a jersey and some white pants. His shoes had paper around them with a Nike check mark going up the side. He had on glasses with some tape around the rims and he had a hat with some twisted up paper as a rough idea of a helmet.

"Who ever heard of an Asian football player!" some kid yelled from the back. It was sort of true though, you don't seen Asians running around the NHL much.

"It's Jon!"

"Oh this is going to be funny!"

"Well you, I'm starting a new trend here," 'Hikaru' snapped back. "Anyways, have no fear! Hikaru is here!" I laughed as Jon, which who was doing me the favor of this, stepped out near me. He was like our class comedian.

"Well Hikaru, here," I said starting up the story, "is actually a really good football player. In fact, he was part of the reason his team finally went to state. He whipped up an amazing team from the crappy players they had-"

"HEY!"

"We don't suck!"

"Gosh, a little more credit please?" I turned to the left to see the football team there standing, with the coach. He looked highly amused. I blushed a little as I got a crowd started - with my school, our football team, and some people who just happened to be walking by. Everyone started laughing as Jon pretended to carry the football and dodge blows left and right. Sometimes he would just fall on his stomach and pretend to struggle to get the football back into his hands. I laughed as he went on with his little games.

"Anyways, he helped his team to get to state," he got up and started shaking his hands like a champion. I shook my head as everyone started laughing again. "But then, their team learned they were going to play the monstrous Koochiching team." He gasped and he pretended to faint as these other boys came walking in from the other car with the same stupid get up. I caught him as he fell backwards. The other team started laughing at him and cracking their knuckles. Jon gulped and his knees started shaking. "Of course the first time state team was frightened-" before I said anything else, Jon literally was pulled back and some Koochiching players stood there.

"Yeah, they should be scared." I glared at the boy who just _had_ to ruin my story at _that __exact_ moment.

"Why is that?" I growled out. Okay fine, not the biggest thing to be upset about, but still. He ruined my story moment! Now it wouldn't be the same vibe!

"How many times have you been to state?" he asked me.

"DOES IT MATTER?" I snapped back.

"Snappy one. Well we'll just kick your asses. Then we'll talk again," he replied. I glared.

"Well we won't get our asses kicked so we might as well talk now," I responded jumping off of the trunk. "Or you can just leave." We had a glaring contest and I think I won. Except he spat at me before he left. "What an ass," I muttered.

"I don't think you're supposed to cuss in front of our school… uh… officials," some one said. I looked up to see the principal, _our_ principal staring at me. Great, I just knew that today was going to be an annoying day.

~*~*~*~

"Are we clear?" I rolled my eyes as I replied I did. I just got a 30 minute long lecture from Dr. Steve about how we shouldn't swear, or follow other's examples. I walked out of the building we were in to go back to my friends. God, high school could be so rough. What high school student _doesn't_ swear? Take that back. There are plenty.

"Games gona start soon," Bex told me as she fell in stride with me. We were making our way towards the stadium.

"Wow, Bex. Thanks for the no brainer." She rolled her eyes. We walked through the entrance, not even stopping to stand in the ticket line.

"Tickets," the man asked as we got to the thing.

"We team managers, we get in free right?" I asked as he sat stunned. I'm sure that other team managers walked in with the team already, but it was worth a try.

"Uh, alright, go ahead." After about 10 feet I started to grin.

"You are so bad. Oh well, thanks for the free tickets," Bex told me.

"No problem," I replied.

"Why are we walking around the whole stadium?" she asked me. We entered from the side and were now passing one of the end zones.

"Because I want the best seats in the house," I replied.

"Which seats are those?" she questioned.

"Behind the benches," I responded.

"Those seats are lame! Can't we sit in the end zone?" Bex asked looking back at our whole student section. She stopped.

"Well I want to hear what the coaches say," I replied. I wanted to hear what he had to say during the game; if he was a cool coach or a hot-headed one.

"Who cares what he says! I want to cheer on the boys with our school!" Bex exclaimed. I smiled at her over my shoulder. She just glared and jogged to catch up. We finally got to the benches and we walked down to the front row seats.

"Mrs. Morgan." I looked down to see the coach walking over. All the boys were just staring at him.

"Can I help you?" I asked obviously confused why he was coming to talk to me.

"May I ask you to move please? We do not want you distracting our boys. Why don't you move over near the other team's bench," he suggested. I just stared at him. Did he want me to mess around with their boys to throw them of their game? "No, not that way. Just we don't want our boys-" he looked at the boys with Goode and Haeg on their jerseys, "getting distracted." I nodded my head. Bex and I went over near the other coach's bench. I mean, why not learn what kind of coach he is since he's so successful. As soon as we sat down their players were looking behind to stare at us.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Bex nervously asked. I looked at her, she sounded unsure, which she never sounded like. She pointed over to some girls walking over towards us. I sighed. I really hope these girls weren't going to come yell their heads off at us. Because Bex and I were not trying to hit on their players, especially the one who ruined my little skit. They sat down a row or two away from us just glaring. I rolled my eyes as Bex snickered. Suddenly we were standing for the national anthem. Next thing you know the ball was getting kicked. Time for the game to start.


	28. starting state

Did I disappoint you with how short it was? Well I'll try to make this one longer.

Uh, that slip up on Mrs. Morgan was supposed to be Ms. Morgan. Sorry! It's like midnight… sorry if there are typos.

* * *

They had the ball first, and boy did that ball go sailing. Their whole student section cheered as their kicker got it down the whole field and tackled our man at the 15.

"Damn, they've got a good kicker," Bex whispered to me. I nodded my head. They did have a really good kicker. He could probably kick the whole distance of the field. We quickly pulled out the team rosters. Number 8, junior Thomas Bianchi. "Do you think it's the same jerk that interrupted you? Because you know it's always the good people who are jerks," Bex mumbled into my ear. I looked at her. We flipped through the program. I smirked as I found the pictures of the players. "They put their pictures in high school programs? Lucky," I chuckled as we looked through the Raven's lineup. We found our number 8.

"Uh.. That's definitely not him," Bex said. I won't deny it, he was hot. But I also felt like I'd seen him before.

"Agreed." We flipped through the program looking for mystery interruption boy. We found him.

"Number 68, Philip Rogers," Bex told me.

"Yeah, Bex. I can't read. Thanks for telling me." He was a senior, and he appeared not to be defensive. He must be some offensive person then. Suddenly we heard cheering and looked up. One of our players, judged on his speed I would say Zach, broke through and was sprinting to the end zone with people trying to catch up. We earned our first touch down.

"!" I looked over to see Bex standing up cheering them on. I laughed as everyone stared at her. We were in opponent territory. She blushed then sat down.

"Alright boys, 24's got speed. Can't let him get behind you," their coach spread the word. He didn't look nervous; he didn't look angry. I sat and watched him as he coached.

"You aren't into older men are you Cammie?" Bex asked as she watched me look at their coach with interest.

"Of course not Bex! I'm watching his reaction. He doesn't seem nervous at all," I replied. Something was different about him. The 8th time returning state seemed like nothing to him. He'd been coming here for the past 8 years so I guess to him this was just another tournament, nothing to get siked out about. Or kicker kicked it back to them, no where near where their kicker kicked. He kicked it to about the 35. They ran up to the 50 before one of our guys hit him.

I looked over at our coach and he looked just as calm and collected as the guy standing in front of me. I sort of expected him to be a little more jumpy, knowing that it's his first time to state and all. I watched our guys, most of them were jumpy, but of course Zach and Kyle were calm, conversing down at the far end of the field.

I stared at them observing everyone's reactions when Bex hit me. "What?" I asked. She pointed at the field. They were really close to scoring a touch down.

"Shit!" I looked up at the clock. Not ever a minute thirty had passed since they had gotten the ball.

"What have you been watching?! The boys?!" she yelled at me. "They move the ball like incredibly well!" I stared as they hiked and the boys blocked our boys as if they were nothing, like they _hadn't_ been lifting weights, as if they _hadn't_ been there, as if they were just plain old blocking dummies!

"Uh…" I just stared as they scored a touch down just as easily. This was going to be a high scoring game. It depended on whose D was going to step up and stop the other team.

~*~*~*~

It was half time and the score was tied 124-124. I was sort of appalled at both teams defense. I walked down into the locker rooms. I heard our coach. It was silent and he was telling us it was a great run, and that if we didn't step up we wouldn't be in this game for much longer. I heard some heavy breathing, probably from the offensive boys. The locker room was just too quiet. I wasn't sure if they were tired, or if they were getting down on themselves.

"I disagree with that statement." I walked out from behind some of the lockers. Everyone's head turned.

"You, are NOT, supposed to be down here," the coach growled out. I still kept my head high.

"I disagree. I think that whoever's defense steps up first and doesn't let them score - I think that team will win. I don't know about you guys but I don't want to be done yet. I don't play, so it's easy to say, but I still didn't come here just to lose our first game. I told that raven what I really thought. I think that we are going to win. Just we need to pick it up a notch. We need to bring the intensity up. Yeah, 8th in 2AA state, that's so amazing! NO. Eighth is nothing compared to anything. There are so many sections that it doesn't matter. First could really be something now. And I don't want it to slip right out of my fingers. If I could play, I would. Because I want to win. I want to go further. Now do you guys want too?" I just stood there. Then my mind started processing my little talk. It was more of a speech.. A cheesy one at that… then I started realizing how stupid and cheesy it was, and how I should of probably kept my mouth shut. No one spoke for probably 3 minutes. They all just stared at me. I just told them off and I wasn't even playing.

"Am I wrong?" I asked. They were all just staring at me. After another 2 minutes I had enough. "Think it over." I turned and started walking out of the room.

"Nah, I think you're right." I looked over. A kid had stood up. "D have one purpose in life, to stop them. And we haven't been doing our job." I stared - no gaped - at this kid. He agreed with me. "We need to pick it up, and I think they will be too. So that just means we have to be that much better."

"Yeah man, I agree. We've been letting the team down," another kid spoke up. Soon enough the whole locker room was in a buzz talking with each other about what they can do better and improve on. Suddenly I felt my arm being jerked and I saw the coach dragging me out of the locker room with the other coaches.

"I don't know what the hell you said that I didn't, but they listen to you a lot more than me," he told me as we got out. "Thanks." I just stood there dumbfounded as I saw my speech become some inspirational thing within the team. I shrugged and walked out.

I walked back to my seat where Bex sat with some other people.

"Where'd you go? I had to go get people to keep me company!"I looked and saw Liz, Mace, Grant, and Jonas all sitting by her. It was just the regular group.

"I gave a prep talk," I grinned. They all laughed.

"Did you get disrupted this time?" Grant asked me. I shook my head.

"Well if that excludes the coach dragging me out of there…" I left it implied while they all laughed. We heard a huge cheering from the other end and spun around. Their team had just ran out onto the field. They cheered more for them now than when they made a good play! They we heard even _louder_ cheering from our bench as we saw them all get up on their feet. They were the same exact way.

"Hello," I looked over to see those girls who were sitting a few rows down standing by our group.

"Uh, hi," I replied wondering what the heck they wanted.

"Can we sit here?" they asked pointing on the other side of Grant and Jonas. I mentally slapped myself. They were going to try and hit on Grant.

"No, wait 'til our boys come out of the locker rooms. Her boy toys are to _die_ for," Bex told them. They perked up. I slapped Bex on the arm.

"One, they are not my boy toys, two, I don't want _two_ boy toys!" everyone else laughed besides the girls.

"So do you guys live down here?" a really pretty blond sat down right in front of us, and the rest of the 3 followed after.

"Yeah, where is Koochiching anyways?" I asked her.

"We live like, WAY up north. By the boarder. You can see snow sometimes!" they laughed. We just sat rolling our eyes. I wasn't sure if they were just toying with us or if they really wanted to talk. "But no really, it's a small town. Be barely get enough football players. It's amazing that we have this many. Most of them come from surrounding cities." I looked over at their bench. That's when I realized how small they really were. They had about half our teams players, well some over half. Probably like 2/3.

"What do you do when someone gets injured?" Bex asked her.

"Well people sit enough as it is anyways. Why not let other people get a chance?" I stared as this girl told us that their coach played everyone at least once a game. We had boys who still hadn't played this year.

"That's nice for them," Bex muttered. I looked over and she was clinging onto Grant's arm. I snickered at her. She was worried these girls were here to steal 'her man'. Suddenly our side was going wild. We looked at the field and saw that they were at their 20, fourth down.

"What the hell! Why are we still down there?!" the girls spun around. Their kicker kicked the ball and we got the return to about the 50. I smiled as our D came off shouting. Our whole student section was cheering, seeing that it was the first time that a team didn't score when that team had the ball.

"I should write a book on inspiring speeches," I 'thought' out loud. Everyone laughed besides the other girls who just looked at me funny. Next thing you knew we had scored and we were up by 7. The game kept going back and forth, but this time our defense were just shutting them down. I looked at the score. 180-146. I shook my head in embarrassment. There was no reason why football should be a high scoring game. Finally we were nearing the final minutes of the game. Next thing you knew a buzzer was going off and our whole student section was going crazy. Their players dejectedly went walking off, while their whole student section stood there in shock, with a score 250 - 160. Yeah, it was embarrassing, but it felt good to dominate something so well.

"Cammie!" I looked down and saw Kyle pulling himself up the railing.

"He IS hot," one of the girls whispered. I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, Kyle," I replied. He just smiled.

"I just wanted to say thanks for getting back into playing football." With that he walked back down over the seats and jumped onto the field while I just sat there dumbfounded.

~*~*~*~

**(Fast forward a few games so you don't get boarded if you don't know anything about football)** I smiled as our team made it's way through the brackets, knocking out team by team. We were finally at the final game. This game stood between us and our first state championship. We were playing the Strasburg Trojans next and God knew how this team played. Bex and I snuck in the same exact way we did the first time. We'd been doing that the whole tournament and no one cared. It was fun being sneaky. We walked back to our spot, right behind the other team's bench. Our whole student section transferred there so instead of it being me and Bex going to a group of 6, it was now our whole school.

The game started soon as we entered the stadium, and the game went at an intense pace. I stopped by the end zone to watch the game without high school students yelling and talking. Bex paused with me as they received the ball. Then so gracefully, they were able to run it up the field. We gaped as the kid was finally tackled down at the 32 on our line where the ball was kicked to about the 3. Their team moved so flawlessly it was impressive.

"Do you think we have a chance?"

"We'll have to find out," I replied. We walked over to the student section where everyone was quieter than normal. I'm sure they hadn't seen something so flawless in a long time.

We watched the game go on. Somehow we were able to stop them many rushes and they stopped us just as easily. Finally late in the section quarter someone scored.

But that someone wasn't us.

They were at about our 37 and it was fourth and down. They sat up as if they were going to kick for the field goal. Well it sure worked. Boys near the end broke and the punter got the ball perfectly in his hands. Before we could even recover the ball was thrown and caught in the end zone. It was a very impressive play, and it sure wowed our student section. At half time it was 14-0. I stayed in the bleachers while most of the students went to go get food or sodas. Then Bex and I got up and went over a few rows.

"They're good."

"Yeah, you sure are right."

"Do you think we have a chance?"

"I hope we do." We finished our quick little conversation.

"Do you think you should go give a prep speech to the offensive line now?" Bex asked me. I laughed.

"Yeah right, I have no idea what I'm going to say. They're just a good team. We need to dig down deep and try to keep up with them and maybe pull ahead." I sat watching the field, imagining what happened only a few days ago when we had that amazing win over Koochiching.

Boy, I sure hoped that we could pull this win off somehow.


	29. state and boys

I feel that I get way off the story plot/topic… sorry if it goes off into some random place.

* * *

"Well I'm thirsty, let's go get something to drink," Bex nudged me and got me up. We walked up the steps and into the lobby. Man that place was hopping. Students were everywhere, some starting to get in each other's faces. We got in line which was like half a mile long, NO JOKE.

"Are you really that thirsty, Bex?" I asked, hoping that she only said she was thirsty so we could talk or something, because looking at this line, it was going to be a while before we made it back into our seats.

"Sadly, I actually am thirsty," she replied. We groaned as we got in line. "Maybe we could charm our way up. I mean you being so beautiful-"

"Not happening, Bex," I replied. I didn't want to act like some slut just so I could get a pop and leave.

"We will be standing here forever otherwise, Cammie," she kept pressuring me into flirting. Too bad I wasn't going to budge. "You're no fun," she grumbled. We stood in that line for half and hour. And we were in sight of the stand.

"Bex, the game is going to start before we get to that stand," I told her. I wanted to watch the game. I knew that it was going to start again, _soon_.

"No way, we did NOT just stand in that like for like, _2_ hours just to stop now," she answered clutching my sweatshirt. "You are going to stick with me until the end." I rolled my eyes.

"We have not been standing for over 2 hours, get a grip Bex. How thirsty can you be anyways?" She started panting being over dramatic as always.

"Holy shit, man! This girl is going to pass out if we don't get her some liquid!" Bex and I both looked up at a group of boys pointing at Bex. "Make way for the girl!" Suddenly we were being pushed up with the boys right behind us. Before you knew it we were in front of the stand and a lady practically throwing water at Bex.

"Uh, we might need some soda for her later so that she can recover from her 'shock'," another one of them added in. I wasn't sure if anyone else heard it but I heard the slight pause on shock. The lady passed over cokes and sprites, enough for the group of boys.

"Thanks Miss, much appreciated. Now she can recover," a boy said pulling Bex and I away. We stared at them.

"Why the hell did you do that?" Bex demanded. I'm sure she was happy about skipping more than 25 people and getting a free drink in the process, but I know that Bex does NOT like to be manipulated by other people - especially those she doesn't know.

"Hey, we're outta the line right?" one of them replied coolly. Bex and I both looked them over. I recognized them, but from where I had no idea.

"So what team are you here for?" Bex asked. They laughed among their little group.

"Do you ladies want to sit with us?" one of them asked. Bex and I exchanged a look. We didn't necessarily want to sit with them, but I knew that she recognized them too.

"Yeah, we'll have a little chit chat," Bex responded smirking. She glanced at me and winked. I grinned back.

~*~*~*~

"So where you ladies from?" one of them asked us. He was tall, the tallest of the group. He had brown hair with hazel eyes. The 2nd half had already started and the score stood the same, 5 minutes in already.

"Roseville," Bex promptly replied. They all cringed. That's when it hit me. I was talking with Thomas Bianchi.

"Thomas?!" I asked excitedly.

"Yeah?!" he replied with the same tone, except with confusion. "Do I know you?" he asked.

"I'm Cammie, remember me?" he blinked, but then I knew it hit him.

"OOOHHH! That chick from Gallagher!" Bex stared in between us.

"Great, another boy to add to our love triangle," she replied.

"Uh, no. Cammie and I are just buddies," he told Bex. She stared between us. I nodded in agreement. She waved it off, I knew she wasn't going to take it for the truth.

"How do you guys know each other?" she asked us.

"Good question. Well I went to a school named Blackthrone, and she went to a school called Gallagher. They're brother sister schools, each all boys or all girls," he explained.

"You go camping with boys and girls? Well we did too. We were in what, 6th grade? We went to some outdoor camp… whatever it was called. That's how we met, same group, yeah," he trailed off.

"Wait, do you still go to Blackthrone?" I asked. He probably didn't, considering that he was playing for Koochiching, a near by town.

"Yeah, I do." Bex and I stared at each other. Two plus two was not adding up to four.

"Then why were you playing with Koochiching?" I asked.

"Because they needed a kicker and our team sucked," he shrugged it off.

"But we're happy he's playing for us!" a kid behind him grabbed him in a head lock as they all laughed.

"I'm assuming you're his Koochiching team mates," I said. They all nodded. "Figures," I replied.

"Hey, so what's up with Roseville. Who are the populars? Queen bitches? Dumb jocks? Can I assume your QB is a dumb jock?" I stared at Thomas.

"No, you can not assume that because he's one of the smartest students at our school," I replied. Even though he always skips class, he's still really smart, and a good athlete.

"Is his name Kyle Haeg?" Thomas asked. I glanced at him while watching the game.

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm doing some sort of transfer with him." My face went pale then and there.

~*~*~*~

"So even if one of the boy toys leaves you're still going to have a replacement come in," Bex talked with me as we made it back to our seats.

"That sounds about right," I said taking it in. This wasn't good. Thomas would of course sit, eat, and talk with me, considering I was the only one he knew at our school. How would Zach take it?

"Great," she replied. I nodded in agreement. We made it down to our seats, only to see people taken it. We conceded and sat a row over. Still with our high school section, only loners of that section. Soon enough people started transferring. I looked up at the score. 21-8. At least we had some form of points up on the board. It was the fourth quarter. We needed 2 touchdowns, _quick_. I laughed as some of our students tried to start the wave. The wave doesn't work very well with the sport football. But then I was being jerked up and instructed by some of the boys that I needed to help them start the wave. I looked down - why was I always one of the people who had to start these things? Can't other people do as great of a job?

"Just get it going, we'll take it from there," one of them told me. I shrugged.

"Alright everybody listen up!" I yelled as our whole student section - including some of our players on the bench - quieted. I looked at the guy. He looked astounded but recovered quickly.

"We're gona do the wave!" he yelled as he was met with cheers I went to go sit down.

"So what, you were just there to get attention?" Bex snickered. I glared right back.

"No, I was supposed to start it, but did I? No."

"We scored a touch down. That's why we cheered she said motioning her hand towards the field. I looked up on the score board and it was 14-21. We just kicked the ball for the extra point. 15-21.

"Are you kidding? That's why everyone cheered? And I missed a touchdown?" I covered my face with my hands in frustration. Bex just laughed.

"Maybe you were our bad luck girl, get out of here!" she teased shooing me away. I looked down on her. Maybe I would leave just for the heck of it.

"You're right. I'm outta here," I replied.

"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" she yelled back at me. "No, you're our lucky charm, I was kidding. You know how bad Kyle and Zach would start playing if they lost sight of you?"

"I thought I was the bad luck charm and making them nervous."

"There's only one remedy, you staying, but not watching the game." I groaned. What was the point in coming if I couldn't watch the game?

"Well that's too bad. I'm just going to do what I've been doing all week - that is watch." Suddenly our whole student section was cheering and we both looked at the field. We just got another touch down.

"See? I told you." I glared back at her. She was about to make some snappy comeback - I could just see it in her eyes - when she suddenly blurted out, "Do you like Thomas Bianchi?"

"What are you talking about?" I demanded. She blurted it out so randomly… it was as if she were accusing me! Suddenly our whole section cheered and it clicked. I made a unhappy face to Bex. She just smiled back. "It was necessary. We got the ball back didn't we?" I looked out and saw that we had the possession on their 35, then groaned. "Bex!" she just giggled.

"But do you like him?" she asked seriously.

"No," I responded in a heart beat.

"Are you sure? 'Cause I see otherwise," she teased. Suddenly our section jumped up. I glared at her. I already knew what happened. She just jumped up like she was watching and celebrated with surrounding people. I looked and we were kicking it to them. Then I looked at the score board. 23 - 21 with 1 minute 6 seconds left. "We so have a chance!" she yelled. Then she looked down at me still sitting. She sheepishly smiled. I glared back. She sat down with me. "Fine, I won't watch with you then," she said with a smile. "Win, win!"

"But I wanted to watch the game!" I whined back. Our section cheered. I hated her so much. I looked at the field. Somehow we had gained possession _again_.

"Well only 45 seconds left. DO NOT WATCH," she commanded as she grabbed my face making me look at her.

"This is no fun," I remarked. "Plus it looks really weird." Immediately she dropped her hands. I snickered. She glanced at the clock.

"Well only 3 seconds left, you can watch." I looked at the field. We were at their 15 somehow. I shook my head. I wanted to actually watch the game, not be the person who shows up but is not allowed to watch. I got to watch the final play at least. Kyle threw a perfect pass right into Zach's arms securing our win. 29 - 21. Our section went crazy as the ran down as close as they could to the field. I got up and left. I went up to the concessions. Well no one was here now. Everyone was smart enough to not pass by our section.

"Hey." I looked around and saw Thomas.

"You're crazy," I laughed. At a point he was smart, but he was stupid to go all the way around the stadium just to see if possibly the walking area wasn't crowded. "What's up?"

"Just wanted to say congrates," he replied. "And I was hoping you could help me get around the school next tri," he mumbled embarrased.

"You could find your way," I replied. His eyes actually widened.

"Are you nuts?! Your school is fricking huge!" I laughed.

"Maybe," I replied while waving back. I walked down the stairs to our student section. I laughed at his facial expression. I knew that he didn't like me, but he was actually terrified of our school. It was bigger than his school for sure, and it wasn't his 'home' exactly.

I mingled into the crowd as I planned to get lost. I smiled then cheered.. Our school had just won state.

~*~*~*~

I was at the airport along with Bex and Grant. We (or rather I + the drag-a-longs) were seeing Kyle off.

"You gona miss me?" he asked smiling.

"I might," I replied.

"Can I get a hug before I go?" he asked. I gave him a hug. Then he smiled then waved. Next thing you knew he was gone.

"Aw, Cammie you like him," Bex teased. I glared back.

"He's just a good friend, but I see you two getting cozy," I responded. Bex and Grant both took a step away from each other. I laughed. "You guys are in love!" Bex blushed. Grant shrugged it off. Yep, man of emotion.

~*~*~*~

I was lying on my bedroom floor when I heard a knock on my door. It barged open. I was expecting Grant, not Zach who came in from my balcony door.

"What's up?" I asked.

"You're going to miss him aren't you," he said in a serious tone.

I shrugged on the floor.

"I may."

Before I knew it he had joined me on the ground.

"Fall is such a peaceful time of year," Zach said as he closed his eyes.

"You better believe it," I smiled.

"People say it's the most romantic season of the year. I mean it is followed by winter where you can get cozy." My eyes snapped open and I turned my head to look at Zach. He was smirking looking straight back into my eyes. I felt a little hot.

That was when I realized I was blushing.

"I won't lose in this game, Gallagher Girl. Especially with Kyle gone, I'll be making my moves. You better watch out," he smiled. I felt my heart skip a beat. I thought I liked Kyle?! No, I knew I liked Kyle, but why was Zach having so much of an impact on me.

"I'll see you around," he grinned as he saw my reaction. Then he got up and left. I stared back at the ceiling.

God help me with all these boys.

* * *

Yeah I know. It gets kind of rushed at the end. Sorry. Look out for a sequel if you like... C:


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